Digimon Frontier: An Endless Tale
by Marie Pontmercy
Summary: Sakura Miyagui suddenly finds herself starting a new adventure at the side of arrogant Kouji Minamoto, who thinks of her as a nuisance... myabe HIS nuiscance? KoujiXoc
1. Chapter 1: Trapped With You

**A/N: I don't own any of the characters except my OC's. And this story is also published in Quizilla under my user name: alwaysOEDgirl. If by any chance you see it there, don't think I stole it. ;) **

**I kind of suck at reviews, by the way, but I hope you like it. **

**Chapter 1 –xoxo– Trapped with You –xoxo– **

Sakura was lying on her bed, staring at the window. The sun's heat was truly comforting, especially after a fight with her boyfriend a few nights ago. Sakura was alone in her big house. Her mother was working and her father was probably in his house with his second wife: Carrie. Carrie wasn't Japanese; she was an American who had taken classes in the same university Sakura's father taught. After her parents separated, Sakura's father announced that he was getting married again, and he expected that Sakura spent some time with Carrie, who was only about 12 years older than her. It was weird seeing her 44 years-old father dating a 23 year-old girl.

Sakura tried to spend some hours with Carrie since she wanted her father to be happy and She knew it might be useful to be friends with her stepmother, but she soon discovered that Carrie was one of those girls who only think of marrying and babies. She kept talking about having a kid of her own and gave Sakura lots of advices and recommendations on how to live her relationships. Carrie even imagined Sakura's wedding and promised her that one day she'd help her planning it. Sakura was horrified after that night and made her father know that she wasn't spending one more second with her… especially after seeing that Carrie only went to Japan to find a nice husband because she was 'tired of Americans'. She was the typical girl who didn't know anything but being a mother. Sakura felt sorry, for a girl like that kind of damaged the impression many people had on Americans. Luckily, Sakura knew better than that and she quickly realized that Americans weren't really that way. It was the luck of being such a smart girl.

Just when Sakura was about to shift her thoughts into another, less painful direction, her eyes caught something out in the street… or _someone. _She slowly got up only to see Yoichi, her boyfriend outside her window. She gasped in horror, surprise, and anger. Hadn't he hurt her enough?! Sakura had basically broken up with him some days before, when she founded out that he was seeing other girl while dating her. Hadn't he got the message when she punched him in the eye?! She looked closely at her boyfriend's figure. His left eye had a black and purplish tone, and it was obviously bigger than the right. Sakura bit her lip; had she punched him too hard? She hoped not. Even if Yoichi was a liar, a cheater, a low-life, and a jerk, he had been her boyfriend for over two years. She couldn't stop feeling something for him. He waved at her and smiled slightly. Sakura didn't know what to do. She still felt a little something for him, but she would never forgive him because of what he did, and that was the reason she had refused to speak to him.

She stared at him blankly for a few seconds before closing her curtains. It was right then when her celphone rang. Sakura walked towards her bed, where se had left her celphone, and looked at it. It read _YOICHI CALLING_. Sakura looked at it until the phone stopped ringing and read _1 MISSED CALL- YOICHI. _Sakura was about to stand up and turn the lights on, for the room had become completely dark when she closed the curtains, when her celphone started to ring again.

"Leave me alone!" Sakura yelled before throwing her celphone to her bed, see it bouncing and then crash with a wall. "Oops." Sakura exclaimed; her eyes opened wide, as she ran to her bed and check on her celphone.

"This is your last chance, Sakura Miyagui" A female voice came from the celphone. Sakura looked at it. In her electric blue screen, there was a text message: DO YOU WANT TO PLAY? And underneath it, there were two options: Yes and No.

_My last chance? _Sakura thought. _Come on! What possible reason would I have to answer yes to what could be a well elaborated trick?! _Sakura was about to answer no when she heard something at her window. She got up, her celphone still glowing on her hand, and opened the curtains just a little bit, only to see Yoichi throwing pebbles at her window. Sakura closed her curtains again and looked at her phone. "Ok, anything to get out of here." She whispered to the phone… or to herself and changed the option to the Yes button. The next thing she knew was her celphone going blank. "No, no, no, no, no, no! Come back! Get me out!" Sakura yelled in frustration at the screen. Sakura was about to sit down angrily when her ringtone made her jump.

"Dear God! I'm going to die of a heart attack one of these days!" She mumbled.

"Sakura Miyagui" The same voice as before spoke out of the celphone. The electric blue light glowing out of it was illuminating the whole room. Sakura was tempted to throw the celphone out of her window, but the woman spoke before she could even finish her diabolic plan. "Sakura, it's time to decide your future. Take the 5:45 p.m. train from Jiyuugaoka Station. Your destiny awaits you, Sakura" And with that, the voice faded. Sakura stood there, holding her celphone on her right palm.

"Ok, this is getting weird." Sakura mumbled to herself again and looked at her clock: 5:30 p.m. "Ok, if I go now, I might still be able to catch the train!" Sakura wandered around her room, grabbing only some money from her purse and putting it inside her pocket. Then, she peeked through her pale blue curtains. Yoichi wasn't anywhere near. "Perfect, he's gone!" Sakura exclaimed and rushed down the staircase. If she could avoid talking to Yoichi, she would definitely get to the train station on time! She unlocked the front door and looked around her house.

Should she leave a note to her mother? She might not return in a while. Her little Beagle hadn't eaten, as well. She ran to the kitchen and founded her dog, Sal. He immediately ran to where she was and started barking and moving his tail. "I know, I know!" She yelled as she served some dog food on his plate and returned to the front door.

Sakura opened her door and popped her head out. Immediately, Yoichi came running towards her, his huge, inflamed, purple eye almost bigger than the rest of his head. Sakura's eyes popped wide opened as she quickly shook her head and shot the door on his face. She made sure she locked it before looking at her celphone and then at her watch. It was 5:35. She knew that she might not get there even if she ran… and with Yoichi guarding her door, she won't even be able to get out of her house. It was then when her barking, little Sal gave her an idea: the back door! Sakura quickly ran to the kitchen and opened the door; she peeked again and saw no signs of Yoichi, so she silently closed the door and ran to the street. It was pure luck that she lived near the train station.

As she ran, Sakura snapped her head at every boy with brown hair that she saw, afraid that one of them might be Yoichi, but she didn't see him. She sighted, relieved and a bit worried as she kept on running. She bumped into a few little kids, but she wouldn't stop to apologize. Even if in a normal day she wouldn't really have apologized, but she gave them less importance than she normally would have. It was then when she bumped into something –actually it was someone –which was harder than those three little kids she had accidentally pushed together. The force of the impact was so hard that Sakura ended up in the floor. She looked up at the thing, rubbing her forehead, only to discover it was a person…a boy! He had dark blue eyes, black hair, and he was wearing a blue bandana with golden-brown stripes. He had brown pants and a yellow shirt beneath a dark blue jacket with two yellow vertical stripes that started from his jacket collar and went all the way down to the end of his sleeves. He stared coldly and angrily at Sakura.

"What's your problem?!" He asked coldly. It was the tone of his voice which turned Sakura's internal switch on. What was wrong with asking if she was Ok or not?! He didn't have to be such a jerk!

"What's _your _problem?!" She replied angrily, causing the boy to glare at her even more. "You could try to be polite sometimes, you know! Ask people if they are all right!" She yelled returning his glare.

"Right, look who's talking!" He yelled back, causing Sakura to back up in surprise. "Is that your way of apologizing?" He continued, this time, a little bit softer but still serious and hard. Sakura's anger rose up even more.

"You know, I might have considered apologizing two seconds ago, but now you can forget about it!" She yelled back at him. The boy's glare grew and Sakura felt how he was about to yell at her in reply. She waited for him to speak as her brain began elaborating a very good answer, but as the boy was opening his mouth someone interrupted their discussion.

"Sakura, are you Ok?! Hey, you, what are you doing to my girlfriend?! STEP AWAY FROM HER!!!!" Yoichi's voice grew louder and angrier as he approached. Both Sakura and the mysterious boy broke their glares and looked at the boy who was running towards them, waving frenetically his arms.

"Oh, no!" Sakura exclaimed as she stood up and stood besides the boy. "No, please no! No, no, no!" She pleaded and, ignoring the boy's confused look, she pushed him aside and kept on running. She was still able to hear the boy's annoyed "Hey!" and Yoichi's screams when she turned the corner and entered the station with a bunch of people, many of them were kids of different ages. Sakura looked at her watch again: 5:42 p.m.

She rushed to buy a ticket, but instead of the typical ticket she usually got, this one was red. Sakura shrugged, not really caring the ticket's color, but trying to catch the train. It was right then when she heard Yoichi's voice again. She turned around only to see her boyfriend running towards her, waving his arms and showing his purple, huge eye. Sakura lowered her head for over a second before quickly recovering and snapping it across the station to find the train before Yoichi got to her. It was only a matter of time before she spotted the train and ran towards it; while Sakura was running, she could hear Yoichi's desperate screams; she ran past boys, girls, grown ups, and all types of people just to get away from Yoichi and get to the train in time. It was logical that Yoichi ran faster, since he had always been a sports boy and just when she thought he was going to grab her arm and stop her from catching the train, a boy with red shirt pushed him and threw him to the ground, giving Sakura a chance to get on the train right before the doors closed.

Sakura stood by the door pounding and tired, watching how her 'boyfriend' started hitting the door with his fist. After a while, the train started to move and she saw Yoichi step aside and run after the train until his figure could no longer be seen. She sighted as she looked around. The boy with the red shirt, hat, gloves, and goggles looked at her with curiosity.

"Umm… are you Ok?" He asked cautiously. Sakura stared at him, blushing. Had it been very obvious that she was trying to run away from Yoichi? The boy kept looking at her but understood that she might not want to talk about it. "Well, I'm Takuya Kanbara." He said happily.

"I…" Sakura took a few moments to separate Yoichi from her mind and focus on the question. "I am Sakura Miyagui. It's nice to meet you."Sakura said finally. Takuya kept looking at her, more concerned than curious.

Sakura scanned quickly the train until her eyes stopped at the only familiar face she saw: the boy she had bumped earlier! Sakura moved her eyes quickly as she realized that he was staring at her too… well it was more like glaring with hate at her, but for Sakura it was the same. She knew he wasn't happy at all. She took a while to decide weather if she should continue the discussion of before or just ignore him, but she realized that the wisest thing to do would be just to ignore him and pretend he wasn't there, al though she felt curious of knowing why he had taken the same train as her. Was he still looking for an apology? Had he been following her? Or was it mere coincidence that he was on the same train as her? That would definitely explain what he was doing on the corner of the station…

Sakura kept asking herself this questions when, suddenly, all of the phones in the train started ringing at the same time. After opening their phones, most of the kids got nothing but a very annoying static that pissed Sakura off and gave her a very bad headache. Sakura saw and heard how most of the kids on the train cursed their phones and started yelling or hitting them. It was then when she realized that her celphone was ringing too. She looked around; Takuya and the other boy were also staring at their phones.

"Transfer to the 6:00 westbound train from Shibuya Station." The woman's voice spoke again. Sakura sighted resigned as she closed her celphone and looked at her watch. She could make it… even if it was five or six minutes left for 6:00 p.m. If she hurried, she could make it on time. It was hard, yes, but it wasn't impossible. Sakura then turned her mind on wondering what had happened to Yoichi. Had he gone home, resigned to the fact that he might never see Sakura anytime soon? Would he tell Sakura's mom what had happened? Would he tell her that she had taken a train from Jiyuugaoka Station? Would he tell her about that mysterious boy she had run into earlier in the street? What would the boy be thinking about? Sakura sighted as she looked at him. He was still glaring at her. Hadn't he forgotten about it?! Sakura was literally running from her boyfriend and she had bumped into him accidentally… and he had been a real jerk instead of helping her! _I bet Yoichi did something to him when I left, _Sakura thought, remembering the way Yoichi had been yelling at him when he saw Sakura in the floor arguing with that boy. Had he said something to the boy on her name? Was that the reason he hated her? He didn't show signs of being beaten or something, so Sakura's mind relaxed a bit.

Even so, why did he blame her?! Sakura looked at him again, but their eyes only met a few seconds before he looked away. _He will never forgive me, _Sakura said to herself. _Well, it's not as if I cared for a jerk. I don't need a friendship like that! _She yelled for her insides as she turned her back on him. In a few more minutes, the train came to a stop and all of the passengers, including Takuya and the other boy, jumped off the train. Sakura snapped her head between all of the people in the station. Sakura, despite of all her qualities, wasn't proud of her orientation sense. In fact, she had never been in that station before. After a few moments of trying to find out where she was supposed to go, Sakura had lost all the patience she had left. She wanted to hit her head against a hard concrete wall. Why did she have to be so disorientated?!

"Sakura, got any idea of where to go?" A voice came behind her. It was Takuya, who was standing behind her with a nervous look. He was also moving his head around.

"No. What are we going to do now?" Sakura asked. She was as worried as Takuya… or perhaps even more. If she got lost she might never reached her "destiny" and she would have to return home, face her mother and her possessive boyfriend… and she wasn't willing to do that. "Maybe…" She began, but was cut off by the boy with the bandana, who walked past her and bumped her shoulder. Sakura stared at him in awe as she rubbed her shoulder. He had bumped her harder than she had, and of that, she was completely sure; only this time she hadn't lost balance, for she was standing in a good position and she wasn't distracted.

"Jerk…" She mumbled softly, but loud enough for him to hear her and glare at her before he kept walking towards an elevator. It was then when she knew where to go. If that boy was positively sure that the elevator was getting them to where they were supposed to go, it was a 95% probability he was right.

"You said something?" Takuya asked distracted as he kept looking for their road.

"Maybe… we should go with him." Sakura suggested and pointed the boy who had bumped her. Even if she didn't like him, she wasn't going to return home and miss what could be her only adventure in the next 15 years or so. Takuya turned and stared at the walking figure of the boy.

"Are you sure?" Takuya asked. He wasn't too convinced on following just any boy Sakura saw. He hadn't even seen him before! Al though he had to admit that the boy looked pretty sure of where he was going.

"Well, he has been traveling with us since the past station. And he looks quite sure of where he's going. Even his celphone rang… the same as ours did." Sakura explained. She knew it was the right thing to do, but she wasn't happy she had to follow that boy.

He was a resentful, mean, proud jerk! And he had bumped her shoulder on purpose! But it seemed the only way to keep on following the instructions of their phones. Sakura looked at the boy again and noticed that he was about to step inside the elevator. She looked at Takuya, who was only starting to think about the whole follow-the-boy idea. Sakura knew they hadn't that much time, so she quickly grabbed Takuya's hand and literally dragged him all the way to the elevator.

"It would seem that you have a big interest in following that boy!" Takuya yelled as they both ran towards the elevator. "I hadn't even replied!"

"Are you kidding me?!" Sakura asked in shock, but didn't stop running. She didn't have a special interest! "I only want to get to that train on time so I don't have to return to my house!"

"Oh." Was all that Takuya was able to say before he looked at the elevator and notice the doors where closing. "We need to hurry!" He yelled at Sakura.

"Wait up!" They both yelled as they ran past all the people who stared at them in annoyance and finally made it to the elevator seconds before the doors fully closed. Both Takuya and Sakura ended up pounding in the floor.

The boy looked at them… well, actually he glared at them, as they stood up and looked at him. He crossed his arms against his chest and looked the other way breathing heavily. Sakura shook her head, not believing his reaction, and as her mouth hung open, she also crossed her arms, turning her back on that boy again letting out a little and proud "hum". The boy looked at her and, seeing that she wasn't returning his look, he returned to his original position: his back at Sakura. Takuya stared at them with one eyebrow raised. He snapped his head between Sakura and her electric, angry blue eyes, and the boy with the bandana and his indifferent dark blue eyes. He scratched the back of his head as he continued looking at the two angry kids. After a few moments, he decided to improve the cold atmosphere.

"Umm" He said looking at the boy. "Hi!" The boy shot one of his cold, famous glares that Sakura was now familiar with and made Takuya shut up. "You could have answered that." He said, rather pissed off and walked closer to Sakura. He leaned to whisper in her ear. "What's his problem?"

"I got no idea. Apparently he's always like this." She whispered back giggling.

The lonely boy had his arms still crossed when he shot a glare to Sakura and Takuya, but he was unable to hold it for long since the elevator suddenly started moving faster. The three of the kids shared a confused look, but then returned to their positions when they realized it wasn't too much of a deal. The bandana boy kept glaring at Takuya and Sakura, Sakura kept ignoring him, and Takuya was about to speak again to Sakura when the elevator started to speed up again. This time it was too fast for a normal elevator. Sakura's arms unfolded as she looked around and fixed her sight at the metal closed doors. Takuya also began walking around, and the silent boy unfolded his arms and held himself of a bar near by. The elevator got to such speed that the three kids were holding themselves from the bar to avoid hitting with the sealing.

"Is this normal?!" Sakura yelled, not really expecting an answer. It was just something she did when she was scared: keep talking to whoever was with her. One time, she even spoke to herself for over two hours just to feel better.

"I really don't think so!" Takuya replied as the elevator kept rising down and Sakura's screams were heard above the boys'. "WE'RE GOING TO DIEEEEEEE!!"

"DON'T BE STUPID, TAKUYA!!" Sakura yelled in a pathetic attempt to calm Takuya and herself down.

"I'M NOT STUPID! WE ARE GOING TO DIE!!!!" Takuya kept yelling, but Sakura didn't have the chance to answer, for the elevator abruptly stopped, sending the three kids straight to the floor.

"See? I told you we weren't going to die." Sakura said giggling a bit as she sat on the cold and hard metal floor rubbing the back part of her head, where she had hit.

"Sorry for over reacting to the cursed elevator!" Takuya said, crossing his arms and blushing a bit. Sakura couldn't help giggling at his reaction. It was only a matter of time before the two of them were laughing. The boy with the bandana stared at them as if they were going nuts and gave them a very notorious "hn", ruining the little fun they were having after a mortal-danger experience.

The elevator doors opened with a sweet ring and the lonely boy was the first one out. He step cautiously between Sakura and Takuya and walked to the station. Sakura slowly stood up and contemplated the station. It wasn't a typical train station like that ones she was used to see. This one was big and circled-shaped and there were many trains of different colors –such as blue, red, green, and pink –and shapes… yeah, literally shapes. All of the trains had eyes, mouths, and faces. Sakura stared at them, wondering why they put faces to their trains. It was more frightening than interesting and it would definitely not attract people or gain publicity. She looked at the railroads; there was one for each train in the station and they all headed to the same direction… apparently. Many kids were on the station too; some older than others. Sakura recognized some of them from the past train. Sakura stepped out of the elevator slowly, still examining the station.

"Where are we?" She asked Takuya, still a bit dizzy for the little elevator ride. She took a moment to realize that Takuya hadn't answered her question. "Takuya?" She asked looking at him. Sakura was brought suddenly to reality when she stared at the place where Takuya had been a few moments ago, which was now empty, "Takuya?" She asked again, this time looking for her new friend with goggles and red shirt. She walked frenetically through the whole station, past huge trains and noisy kids, but she saw nothing of Takuya.

It was then when the loud whistles of the trains shattered Sakura. As she looked around the station, all the trains started to leave. The red one, the green… Sakura started pounding, looking desperately for a train that was still there, or one she was able to board, at least. She started walking faster and faster in every path she could find until she wasn't able to see the elevator and she realized that, once again, her orientation sense and her constant distractions had been the problem of all her miseries. She took a few steps backwards and hit something with her back. Everything happened so quickly that she didn't even have the chance to turn around, let alone move away from that thing. The thing which she had hit –she figured it was a train –started to move; its force was so hard that it pushed Sakura to the ground.

As Sakura looked around, still on her knees, there was a noise that caught her attention. It sounded like a train moving… Sakura turned around only to see a huge, pink train with mole face coming straight towards her. She looked down at her knees quickly enough to see that she was on the train's railroad! She looked at the pink, huge, threatening train again, coming closer and closer. She was in such a shock that she was totally unable to move her legs to get out of the way; she was in such despair that she even started to hit them in a pathetic attempt to make them move, but she was unsuccessful. In the second Sakura closed her eyes, waiting for the impact to come, something grabbed her arm and lifted her up easily, assuring her waist with other hand and pulling her to the solid floor. After she didn't felt the collision, her only thought was '_thanks to God I'm quite thin.'_

She sat on the floor of the train panting loudly, the same as the person who had saved her. She opened her eyes slowly, only to see the boy with the bandana staring at her; however, his eyes weren't indifferent anymore, they expressed something… kind of like relief. She looked at him in surprise. He wasn't what she had been expecting. She thought that maybe Takuya or another person had saved her, not the guy, she thought, hated her! He stood up without saying a word and closed the door, creating a peaceful silence in the interior of the train. Sakura followed him with her eyes as he walked passed her and sat silently, crossing his legs and resting his arms on the seat's back. She looked down at her hands, for the first time in her life, nervous of not knowing what to say. It took her a while to realize that she had almost died a few minutes ago. She hugged her knees and buried her face. The boy had expected that post-traumatic shock to come, but it wasn't important for him.

"Th-thank you…" Sakura whispered slowly with her face still buried between her knees. The boy, who hadn't been paying any attention to her since he saved her, looked at her in surprise. Sakura lifted her head and stared at him, blushing hard. "For… saving my life." She finished, still with a voice thread.

"Yeah." He replied indifferently. Sakura fought the impulse of yelling at him again. Why did he have to answer so coldly?! She knew it wouldn't be good to fight with the boy she'd be traveling with for God-knows how many hours, so she tried with all her forces to control herself and yell only to her insides. "So, you are a little nuisance, aren't you?" He asked again, not really sounding interested, not expecting and answer, and definitely not looking at her. In fact, his interest was so little that his words didn't sound like a question, but more like a new discovery or an affirmation.

"I'm not sure if I follow." Sakura replied, concentrating all her energies in not hitting that boy. _Nuisance?! Who the hell does he thinks he is?! _Sakura's hands became fists and the post-traumatic shock evaporated.

"Well, you were sitting in the middle of the railroads, you bumped into me, you yelled at me, and you have a weird, trouble-maker boyfriend." He began making a list. Sakura's breathing grew faster as anger took over her.

"You were the one who started yelling at me! And I wasn't 'sitting in the middle of the railroads;' I fell!" She said angrily. After a pause, she spoke softly again. "And, well… my boyfriend… he's another matter.

"Hum." The boy replied as he turned his head to the opposite side. Sakura's anger rose again. _Hum?! That's all that he says?! Jerk!!! _"You know, Sakura? It doesn't make me comfortable having to look down on you." He said with his boring tone again.

"Huh?" Sakura asked confused. _What did he meant by that?!_ He pointed his dark eyes to the floor so Sakura could realize that she was still kneeling on the floor. "Why is it everything about you?!" She asked irritably as she stood up and sat on a seat in front of him.

"Me?" He asked again, this time, his voice did have a tone of confusion, but he kept it cold. Sakura nodded energetically.

"It's all about making _you _comfortable, bumping into _you… _I mean I was the one in mortal danger, and you also bumped into me!" She replied, trying to keep an indifferent attitude and not showing her anger, but not really succeeding. "Not that I don't appreciate what you did for me, of course." She added. Sakura waited for him to answer, but he didn't; he simply looked away with another of his "thns'". Suddenly, that other detail hit her and she forgot for a second the boy's selfishness. "Umm, my name..." She began politely, not really knowing how to say: 'how the hell do you know my name, you selfish jerk?!' without making it sounding so rude. He looked as if he had made a mistake.

"It's Sakura, isn't it? Sakura Miyagui."

"Yes." She giggled a bit. "What I meant was: how do you my name?" She explained a bit disappointed on how it sounded at the end.

"I heard you introducing to that boy with the red shirt on the train. Also your boyfriend mentioned it." He said as if it was obvious.

"Oh." She remembered how crazy Yoichi had been when he saw her arguing with…um…? "I just realized I don't know your name." She said softly and blushing a bit.

"Kouji Minamoto." He said shortly.

"Kouji… I hope Yoichi didn't bother you so much back there." Sakura said, although she knew he might have for the way Kouji acted with her.

"He is a protective boyfriend… probably too much."

"Among other things…" Sakura sighted and looked through the window.

Neither of them spoke during a few moments. The train was loaded with one of those uncomfortable silences in which the two persons knew so little about each other that didn't dare to talk. To this situation it might be added the fact that between Kouji Minamoto and Sakura Miyagui there wasn't any sign of mutual respect, tolerance, or any other value needed to begin a cordial conversation that might end in friendship. Sakura thought that Kouji was simply a lonely boy who was a total jerk and was disrespectful to every person he saw. He was the kind of person that Sakura couldn't stand and usually avoided; but now she was trapped in the same train where he was... and she didn't know how many hours she would be with him.

Kouji, in the other hand, thought of Sakura as the typical, selfish girl that only thought of how pretty she was. And after the incident with her boyfriend, Kouji had the impression that Sakura was the kind of girl who was always waiting to be saved; the kind of sweet girl of fairytales. And he all ready knew she was a nuisance to him, for she had an especial interest in making Kouji's life harder.

Sakura's ringtone, which had been sweet and funny some time ago, sounded horrible in that second. Sakura jumped when she heard it and didn't immediately recognize her ringtone. It sounded more like static mixed with a prehistoric radio. She stared at Kouji, thinking that it was his phone which was ringing, but after hearing the characteristic, rhythmical beeps of her ringtone she took it out of her pocket and stared at it. The screen was changing from her electric blue screen that read: _YOICHI CALLING_, to a bunch of static and gray and black moving lines. Sakura waited until her screen was a bit more stable again and answered the call.

"Hello? Sakura, are you there?" Yoichi's voice came from the other side of the line, but it was hard to understand him since the static kept interrupting. Kouji rolled his eyes on the front seat.

"Yoichi?" Sakura asked, getting as answer more static and a glimpse of Yoichi's voice. "Are you there?"

"Sakura… where… you… Ok?" Yoichi's frenetic questions were interrupted by static every time he tried to say something.

"Where are you?" Sakura began, knowing that it wasn't too smart since she wouldn't be able to talk to him. "Did you…?" Sakura was cut off by Kouji.

He took Sakura's little, blue celphone and hung up, leaving Yoichi very angry… wherever he was. Sakura sighted and waited for Kouji to return her celphone, but instead, the boy looked at it, put it in his right pocket, and sat back on his seat easily.

"Hey, what are you doing?!" Sakura yelled at him as she stood from her seat and put her hands on her waist (an old habit she had developed).

"I'm making sure that you don't speak to him anymore." He replied as if it was obvious.

"WHAT?! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!" She yelled as she opened her eyes.

"All that static disrupts my thinking… and I really hate its sound. Besides, his yelling voice was starting to annoy me… again"

"That's my phone! I want you to give it back to me! You have no right to steal it!" She said seriously as she walked to where Kouji was sitting and stretched her hand at him to receive her phone. He remained sitting with his legs crossed and his arms resting in the seat's back, staring at her hand.

"No." He simply said. Sakura's eyes widened and her mouth hung open as he spoke so coldly and turned his head to the opposite side again. Of course, she never expected it to be so easy.

"Give it to me!"

"No." Kouji repeated as he stood up and walked around the train.

Sakura's switch turned on again, like the first time she saw him. She began chasing him angrily, willing to leave his eye as Yoichi's.

"Give it to me!!" She yelled furiously as she began chasing Kouji all around the train.

Kouji was taller than her and his reflexes were very good, so he easily moved around, lodging Sakura's poor attempts to hit him.

"Kouji, come on! Give it back to me!!" Sakura pleaded angrily as she ran over and over in the same places Kouji had been a few seconds before.

"I have to admit you're fast, but not fast enough!" He teased her, making Sakura angrier. She knew one of her troubles in that situation was her short stature, and Kouji pissing her off wasn't making her happier with herself. "You want it back? You have to catch me first!"

"Stop it!" Sakura yelled as she prepared to try knocking Kouji down… again.

This time, Kouji wasn't prepared to move, so he and Sakura ended up struggling horizontally in the train's seat. Koji was almost lying, with his knees trying to keep away Sakura, as his hands were quickly getting the electric blue phone from his pocket and swinging it above his head. Sakura kept trying to reach it, even if Kouji's knees were an obstacle. Just when she was about to win Kouji the battle and get her celphone back, the train bumped hardly two or three times and made Koji fall from the seat, leaving Sakura kneeling on it, contemplating how Kouji stood up proudly and stared at the window in front of him, turning his back on Sakura. It took her a few seconds to realize that he was looking interestingly at something.

She stood up and walked to where Kouji was and contemplated the scene. It was an island… well it would have been an island if it was surrounded by water and if it wasn't floating! Kouji and Sakura looked at the sight they had in front of them, marveled by it. How on Earth had they managed to get to that place?

"Where are we?" Sakura asked softly as she kept on looking, examining the island with her blue eyes and wondering in what planet they had arrived. She wasn't talking to Kouji, really. If she were alone, she still would have asked that question out loud.

"How do you want me to know?" Kouji replied coldly again.

Sakura ignored his mean and insulting reply for once; she was more interested in the sight she had just out of the window, and Kouji had become a minor problem at that point. Luckily for him, she had forgotten about her celphone, or she would have taken the opportunity to keep on fighting. Sakura never rejected an opportunity to fight if she had one. The floating island became even more impressive when they saw trees appearing out of nowhere, being formed by thin air. Sakura could have sworn she saw some weird lines that looked like code bars or something, but they faded before she got the chance to examine them.

"What is…?" Kouji mumbled looking sharply at the appearing trees.

"You saw that?" She asked, this time she DID expected an answer, mostly to prove that she wasn't going nuts.

"This place keeps getting weirder." Kouji's reply wasn't really making her feel better, but it proved that she wasn't the only one crazy, at least.

They kept staring at the sight of the lovely and peaceful island until their train abruptly stopped in a station… or what seemed like a station, for it was nothing like the kids had ever seen.

***

Kouji was the first one to jump of the train. Sakura followed him soon afterwards, without really knowing why. She was in a strange place and she was afraid to be alone, but following a jerk like Kouji… She thought she had a better chance of surviving if she wasn't alone, especially because her sense of orientation was awfully bad and the station didn't seem a good place to get lost. It was all gray and like metal covered. It seemed like a boiler room more than what it really was. The talking train blew his whistle as Kouji started to stretch a bit, apparently very tired of having to stand Sakura for that long. She waited until he finished so that they could resume their discussion.

"My phone, Kouji." She said, holding out her hand again. Her tone wasn't really polite; it was more like 'give me my damn phone or I'll leave your eye purple'.

"Are you going to start again?" He replied, examining the station. "You couldn't win me the first time."

"I was going to win you; it's just that the train saved you. If we fight again, I'm sure I'll win!" Sakura said proudly. It was evident that Kouji didn't like the idea that she was stronger than he was.

"I really don't think so." Kouji said, his dark blue eyes looking directly at her electric blue eyes again. "Why do you want it so much?" He said, putting his hand in his pocket.

"Excuse me?! It's MY phone!! I'm trying to figure out why _you _want it so much!"

"If you need it, you can ask me and I'll give it to you."

"I don't believe you, Kouji." Sakura said and stared at him seriously. Her hands were on her waist again. "Why do you want it?!"

"If I give it to you and that guy calls again, you'll surely answer it. But you won't even be able to speak to him because all that annoying static will come with his irritant voice. And I'm not willing to suffer with all that noise for the third time this day." Kouji said, closing his eyes. After a pause he continued. "If I have the phone, I'll easily hang up and end the problem".

"If I talk to him or not it's not your problem. And I don't care if there's a bunch of static! You can't just steal my celphone and expect me to be Ok with it! I-". But Sakura was cut off when Kouji got his phone out and a weird object appeared in its place. "What are you doing now?! What is that?" She asked irritably.

"I don't know." Kouji replied indifferently and pulled Sakura's phone out.

Instead of the little, electric blue, celphone Sakura used to have, there was a weird object. It was white with electric blue lines that rounded its shape, and it had silver colored buttons.

Sakura's D-tector.

Kouji's D-tector

"What did you do to my phone?!" Sakura exclaimed, taking advantage of Kouji's surprise to take it away from him and stated looking at it.

"ME?!"

"You were the last one who-"She was cut off again by the same voice she had been following and an electric blue glow with a weird symbol. It was the same female voice that had been guiding her to the stations.

"Kouji Minamoto and Sakura Miyagui." She said, her voice coming out from the new objects they had just 'acquired'.

"Is that voice again!" Sakura pointed out.

"Commence your search." The voice continued. Sakura wandered if she could hear them or if it was just a recording.

"Search?" Kouji asked a bit annoyed. "For what?!"

"The Spirits." The voice said.

"How do you know my name?" Sakura asked in awe. "Well, OUR names." She corrected after gaining a scary look from Kouji.

"Find your Spirits and you will find the answers to all your questions."

"And how are we going to do that?" Sakura asked irritably. Dealing with that woman wasn't easy.

"Remain together, find your spirits, and your questions will be answered."

"WHAT?! TOGETHER!!" Sakura and Kouji exclaimed at unison and sharing a confused look, mixed with annoyance and despair.

"You'll have a better chance." She said before both D-tectors became death.

"What is this 'Spirit'? How do I know where to look for it?!" Kouji yelled desperately.

"Singular sentence." Sakura pointed out, waiting for Kouji to correct his sentence the same as she had, but he did nothing. Sakura's anger grew with every passing instant. "No, please! Come back!!" Sakura pleaded to her phone without success.

Sakura and Kouji began pressing buttons randomly, trying to get the voice back. But it was Kouji's D-tector that beeped and showed a circle with many lines and two small dots of different colors: dark pink and light blue.

Sakura lowered her head, defeated and resigned to her fate. She was seriously thinking to go and hit her head against a tree when she thought it wouldn't be any help. She looked at Kouji, just to find that he was also looking at her. They both had a mortified expression on their faces. It had been enough to deal with each other in the train, now they had to stand each other days, or even weeks until both of them founded the so called 'Spirits'.

"What are those dots?" Sakura asked as she stood up distractively behind Kouji and used his shoulders as a leverage to see the map better, so she was standing in the tip of her toes and holding herself from his shoulder. Kouji turned his head until his dark glare fell upon Sakura's hand. She quickly pulled it off his shoulder but said nothing.

"The blue dot is me, the pink one is you." Kouji explained, still glaring at Sakura, who had moved to his right side.

"How do you know that?!"

"It's obvious."

Sakura stood behind Kouji again and grabbed his D-tector. Ignoring Kouji's angry yells, she separated from him a bit, just to discover that it was the blue dot separating from the pink one.

"I told you I was the blue one!" Sakura yelled triumphantly.

"That's not true!" He yelled as he approached her. He grabbed back his D-tector and separated from Sakura, only to find out that she was right.

"I told you so!" Sakura was about to keep celebrating her right assumption when the train blew his whistle and let out a big pile of gray smoke.

"This keeps getting weirder by the minute." Kouji mumbled again. Sakura simply nodded in agreement, though he didn't actually see her.

"You said it." Someone mumbled. Sakura and Kouji turned around to see nobody, except for the train.

"You speak?!" Sakura asked surprised.

"It's quite common, I'm a trailmon." The blue train said.

"Umm… well, I'm Sakura!" She said cheerfully. "And he's Kouji." She added, pointing at the boy besides her.

"It's nice to meet you." The train said.

"So, where exactly are we?" Kouji asked.

"You're in the Digital World."

"Digital World?" Sakura and Kouji asked at unison.

"Yes, it's the home of the Digimons, our home."

Kouji turned around and started walking, looking at the map with a troubled expression. Sakura looked at him, her self-control not as good as it was in the train, and Kouji's attitude and the voice's command weren't helping. She hated to be left behind. She breathed slowly a couple of times, trying to regain her control.

"We have to go, it was nice to meet you." She said cheerfully to the train and followed Kouji, who stopped when he heard her footsteps behind him.

"What is it?" He asked coldly and quite pissed off.

"Didn't you hear that we are supposed to stay together?" Sakura asked with sarcasm, not happy at the command the D-tectors had given, but she kept on walking past him.

"I guess." Kouji admitted reluctantly. He sounded as if his mouth hurted at the simple mention of those words. Sakura turned around and glared suspiciously at him. "A word of advice: do not bother me." He said very slowly, as if she was dumb and needed that the persons spoke slowly so that she could understand.

"Don't bother you?!" She yelled at him and stood frozen when Kouji walked past her. She stood in shock for a while, leaving Kouji walking, until she thought of a good reply and then ran after him. "If you don't like me, you shouldn't have saved me! Thanks to that, you are here trapped with me and vice versa!"

"Oh, please!" He exclaimed, but he wasn't that much interested in arguing, so he didn't stop. The fact that his plan to escape Sakura was frustrated pissed him off.

"I mean, you are not the only one here! If we're supposed to remain together, you're going to have to stop being so… so… so…!" Sakura trailed off, realizing that her brain wasn't thinking of a good adjective to describe him, even if she had thought of many when she was on the train with him just a few moments ago.

"I am so…?" Kouji encouraged, rather amused by her frustration, though his voice didn't show it.

"When I find an adjective worth of you, I'll tell you!"

"Be sure to remember that promise." Kouji said, laughing to his insides –though his tone was indifferent –and kept on walking.

"I will." Sakura threatened coldly as she followed him. "Where are we going?" She asked after a long, uncomfortable pause.

"To find those Spirits so that I can get rid of you, little nuisance." He said with his characteristic, boring tone; not looking at her.

"Hey! Don't call me that!" Sakura protested as she ran, trying to catch up with Kouji.

They both remained silent, thinking of how unfortunate their lives were for having each others 'company'. Kouji's eyes didn't separate from the weird map and Sakura didn't open her mouth, her brain was still thinking of adjectives to describe Kouji. Strangely, none of the adjectives she was coming up with seemed enough to describe him. The station wasn't the kind of place that was useful to improve the kid's mood, but it didn't matter. The only thing they knew was that they were trapped with somebody they couldn't stand on a mission that they didn't understand.


	2. Chapter 2: The Other Side of Kouji

**Chapter 2 ~the Other Side of Kouji Minamoto ~**

It hadn't been very long since Sakura and Kouji left the trailmon back. They hadn't spoken a word to each other since then. Once again, the silent atmosphere became loaded with tension. Sakura wasn't a nervous girl and she was usually speaking to improve her mood and that of the few persons that happened to be with her, but with Kouji it was different. She didn't know him at all, and he had been so cold and indifferent to her, even though he had saved her life. She couldn't think of something to say that would improve the heavy atmosphere without upsetting Kouji or herself and end up fighting again. She looked at Kouji's back again; he hadn't changed position since they started walking. He just kept looking at that map, quite annoyed. Was it because his dot's color? He had been pretty upset that time. Or was it because he was with her? Was she really _that_ annoying? She knew they weren't exactly getting along, but she never thought of herself like a burden or a nuisance.

She stopped walking, trying to contemplate that thought better. Wasn't that what Kouji had said? 'Little Nuisance'. She was indeed a burden to him. Sakura's mind quickly put everything together: Kouji thought that she had to be saved all the time; that she needed to be protected. It was all because of the incident with the train he thought she was getting in problems all the time. And he wasn't going to waist his time with her. That's what he meant every time he called her 'Little Nuisance'! It was all like a punishment to him! Sakura got angrier at every passing second. She needed to get out of that thought to regain her control, but she was unable. The simple possibility that she might be a nuisance to someone upset her, mainly because she hated that kind of people… and now she was being one. She never really cared about Kouji and what he thought, but she was being something she loathed, and she could hardly bare it.

"You're staying behind, Sakura." Kouji called as he waved one arm behind his head, but he didn't stop or turn around.

She had to thank Kouji internally for breaking her thoughts. She wasn't a nuisance, and it was possible that Kouji only liked that nickname. Al though she was going to make clear that she actually hated it. Suddenly, Sakura heard a weak sound. It wasn't more than a few taps, but she still worried. They were in a weird island with creepy creatures that were unknown to all humans. What if they were dangerous? She listened carefully. The sounds were intensifying until Kouji also stopped and looked around.

The station was divided by many boiler-looking objects. It was very hard to try to figure out where the sound was coming from. Kouji, who was a couple meters ahead of Sakura, looked through an opening between the boilers, which gave the impression of forming a road, or, at least, a hallway. Sakura started to approach until both heads were just a few inches away, trying to see what was happening. Right then, two boys, passed running in the parallel 'hallway'. One of them was little, quite thin, and was literally being dragged by the other one, who was chubby and big; he was dressed in a light blue overall and he was holding something in his free hand, the one that wasn't holding his partner's. They were both laughing and their smiles were way bigger than their faces. Before they kept on running with no direction at all, the chubby one threw they object he was holding, which flew all the way were Sakura and Kouji were. Weather if it was by accident or not, the object hit Kouji's head, bounced, and ended in the floor, besides Sakura's feet. Her eyes widened, waiting for Kouji to blow up, though on the inside she was laughing uncontrollably.

"Now what?!" Kouji yelled frustrated as he rubbed the part of his head that had been hit with the object. Sakura chuckled as she knelt and grabbed the thing, taking a long look at it.

"You were hit by a chocolate bar!" She said, not being able to hold a laugh.

"Ha, ha, very funny." He said, glaring at her. Then, he turned his head to the place where the pair had run through. "Hm, there goes an accident waiting to happen." He pointed out.

"Don't you think we should do something? They really shouldn't be wandering alone in a place like this." Sakura said as she looked at the empty, parallel corridor again.

"We're supposed to find those 'Spirits'. Every second standing here is a second lost."

"What if something happens to them?" Sakura's big heart spoke this time. If they could help in something, why not do it? Kouji's reason then hit her. _He doesn't want to be with me more than the necessary time!_

"I don't know them. I have no idea of what they are doing. It's not my problem if they have gotten themselves into trouble. And since I don't owe them anything…" Kouji began. Apparently, everything was a complete waste of time for him.

"You don't have to owe a person to help them, and you don't need to know them, either. It's something you do for satisfaction; that's what 'helping' means." Sakura pointed out.

"Oh, well, I'm not here to play baby-sitter. And we have all ready many things to worry about." He said, leaving aside his argument of owing a person to help them, and resumed his walk. Sakura stood there, not knowing what to do. Finally, she made up her mind and ran after Kouji. She knew he was being selfish, but he was right in some things. Those boys' problems were only delaying them, and they were desperate to find those 'Spirits'… weren't they?

She kept following Kouji as she let her mind wonder. Why was she trying to find those 'Spirits'? Was she really trying to do it because she couldn't stand Kouji? They hadn't been fighting since the past… half hour? Fifteen minutes? But she wasn't really trying to 'get rid of him', as he had said about her. She was just following for two things. The first one: she hated being alone, and she knew she wouldn't last five minutes without getting lost, or eaten. The second reason was because that voice had told them. And she had promised herself that she'd obey it if she got her out of her house and far from Yoichi, and, weather it was on purpose or not, it had turned out well. So, even if she felt like she was trapped with Kouji on the train and when they discovered that they were supposed to remain together, she didn't feel like it anymore. She just felt… normal.

She didn't feel nervous anymore, even if she was with Kouji and they weren't talking. All that worry had gone away with that thought. Why had it happened? Why she didn't hate Kouji and his idea of her? Why wasn't she fighting or looking for a fight with him? The answer then made her smile happily. She didn't feel that way anymore because she knew that she liked herself and that Kouji wasn't going to change that. She didn't feel that way anymore because he wasn't bothering her, and she could talk to herself and think of her own business, just like when she was alone in her house, but with the difference that she had company. If something happened, she wouldn't be alone, and she didn't have to worry about talking to someone.

Her mood suddenly improved as her mind filled with this happy thought. It improved even more when they managed to get out of the station and they founded themselves in a lovely forest. Sakura couldn't help looking around and contemplate their lovely surrounding. It was nothing like she'd ever seen! Everything was so green and it made her feel alive. She hoped past Kouji happily and opened her arms to feel the sweet caress of the wind. It felt so good on her face, her hair, and her bare arms that she forgot for a second that she wasn't alone. It was Kouji's horrible grunt that brought her back to reality. When she turned to see him, his face was totally upset by the fact that his map had gone. He looked like he was going to stamp his foot on his D-tector at any second.

"Got tired of the map?" Sakura said cheerfully as she hopped back to where Kouji had stopped.

"Shut up." He mumbled as he kept pressing buttons. He didn't bother to look at her.

"So, you have no idea of where are we? You were the one with the map!"

"Let's make this clear!" He said putting his D-tector aside. "I am not lost! I just don't know where to go next because the map disappeared. Second: we wouldn't be better if you had the map!"

"That is…"

"So true." Kouji completed as he turned his head to his D-tector.

"I was going to say 'so rude'." Sakura mumbled but she didn't care if Kouji had heard her. She sighted and put her hands on her hips, looking around the forest that had suddenly stopped looking so charming.

The only thing she saw were hundredths of trees. She turned her head to the right and something caught her attention. It was a gray wall made of bricks and covered in plants and flowers. She looked back at Kouji, who was still glaring at his D-tector, and made her mind. She walked over the wall and started to examine it. If she founded a door or something, they might be able to follow it and perhaps find someone that might know about the Spirits. To Sakura, most of the Digimon were nice, though she had only spoken to the trailmon. She founded nothing peculiar about the wall, so she let out a little, frustrated, grunt and she leaned in a section of the wall covered by moss and bindweed. She didn't feel how thing the layer of plants was until it was too late. The plants were so weak and thin that they couldn't even stand Sakura's weight and, in an instant, it broke; making Sakura fall with a drowned scream. Before she could keep on yelling, she tried to hold herself from a wall and ask Kouji for help, but as she placed her hand on the wall, she felt a horrible pain on her right arm that forced her to let go before she could ask for help. She rolled over some stone stairs and fell heavily in the floor. The last thing she felt before darkness covered her was a sharp pain in her right arm.

***

Kouji turned around confused by the sound he just heard. It sounded like Sakura's voice mixed with something light falling. He was even more confused when he couldn't find her anywhere near.

"What's with that girl?" He asked frustrated. It was then when his eyes caught something. It was a big hole in the wall. "Now, I'm sure I'd remember that."

He returned over their steps until he was able to see to see the terminal in which they had just arrived, but they were still no signs of Sakura. Defeated, he decided to return to the wall. Maybe Sakura had decided to leave without him. Al though he doubted it. In a couple of minutes he reached the hole in the wall again. _Why would she want to disappear through a hole in a wall?! _He asked himself, totally irritated by the fact that they were wasting precious time.

"She knows it's safer to stay out of creepy holes in the walls!" He then thought of Sakura's temper and smirked. "Well, we didn't come here to play it safe." _This better not be someone's idea of a joke… especially Sakura's! _He thought as he carefully descended the stairs.

Half the stairways were covered by the green light form the forest, while the bottom half was completely dark. A few holes in the sealing provided Kouji the necessary light to avoid falling. When he got to the final steps he listened carefully to any sound that might come from Sakura, but he heard nothing. _Why am I looking for her anyway?! _He sighted. _Right, we're supposed to stick together… and she would have done the same for me, I guess. _

"Anyone here?! Sakura?!" He yelled but got no reply. "Ok, I suppose not." He sighted and stood there, thinking weather he should continue or not. The screen on his D-tector was white this time.

***

"The wind is blowing on that direction…" Sakura heard a voice say. He kept on talking, but she couldn't fully understand what he was saying.

She tried to rub her head but something prevented her to do it. She slowly opened her eyes to see the little boy with the hat that she'd seen running happily before. He was standing a few feet away was his chubby partner but he moved towards Sakura and held her right arm.

"You're awake! It's such a relief!" He cried and smiled warmly.

"Who are you, guys?" Sakura asked sitting up and snapping her head between the two boys.

"My name is Tommy and he's J.P.!" The little one replied again.

"I'm Sakura." She tried to get Tommy to let go of her arm, but every time she couldn't move it, let alone ignore the pain. "What happened to my arm?!" She cried desperately after Tommy let her arm go very carefully.

"I think you dislocated your arm." J.P. replied, kneeling besides her.

"Are you sure it's dislocated?!?! It hurts a lot!" She almost yelled, trying to hold back the tears.

"No, I'm not sure! I really suck for these things." He apologized with a mortified expression. Sakura felt so guilty of having to trouble both of them that she hid her pain as best as she could, though it was no mystery that she wasn't all right.

"It's Ok, I can handle it until I figure out…" She began but a weird noise cut her off. It sounded like many voices yelling.

"We need to keep on moving!" J.P. warned.

He and Tommy helped Sakura up and they started walking with J.P. leading the way. Sakura preferred to stay behind them. She didn't want them to notice in how much pain she was right then and make them feel guilty for not being able to help her. _Did Kouji realize I was missing? _She asked herself. What if he hadn't? She might have to stick around with J.P. and Tommy until she founded him. What if neither of them found their Spirits because they weren't together as the voice had commanded? She wanted to kill herself. Why did she have to lean on that stupid wall?! That was causing all her troubles and pain… internal and external! She looked at her arm. It was horrible, and it hurted like hell! Looking at it was almost as painful as the external feeling.

"Hey, J.P…" Tommy asked nervously. "Is there a chance that we might be going in circles?"

"No! What makes you think that?" J.P replied and approached Tommy, who was staring at a boiler-kind-of-looking thing.

"This cross." Tommy pointed at a cross scratched over the surface of the boiler. Sakura also broke her thoughts and approached the two boys.

"That means nothing. It's just something somebody did a few years ago or something." J.P. said quite confident.

"I drew it when we started out!" Tommy cried and lowered his head.

"It means we're lost. We're going to be stuck here for days, if not for months." Sakura sighted softly and went back to her former position. Suddenly, Tommy became a sea of tears and yells and Sakura got a tremendous headache with his crying. _This is perfect! I'm lost with a dislocated/fractured arm, another disorientated person, and a kid that has zero control and a tendency of crying!! This couldn't get any better!!_

"Hey, Tommy, don't cry!" J.P. pleaded. He searched in his pocket and got out a chocolate bar, just like the one that hit Kouji. "Here, this will make you feel better. At least we won't starve!" He said as he cracked a piece of chocolate and handed it to Tommy, who stopped crying and took it happily. "You want some, Sakura?" He said, offering her a piece.

"Umm… no thanks. I'm fine." She said politely, al though she was very hungry. She just felt it wasn't the right place to start eating.

Sakura watched how the boys' mouth opened widely as they prepared to eat their chocolates. Then, the sound they'd been hearing since they started walking appeared again. It was a horrible, husky laugh that came from the sealing. The three of them looked up only to see more than a dozen pairs of red eyes staring at them. Suddenly, one of them jumped and fell from the sealing, showing its sharp teeth as the thing's outline became clear. It was a face with long things like ears, and it was light pink. They all started screaming, but before any of the kids could do something, all of the creatures had them surrounded. It was horrible how those things try to bite them, and Sakura wasn't particularly able to move a lot to defend herself, or, at least, prevent them from eating her.

"Here, you can have them! Take them all!" J.P. cried as he threw all of his chocolate bars, grabbed Tommy's hand, checked which Sakura's arm he was holding, and started running desperately.

The weird Digimons made a hill of pounding faces as they ate the chocolate. Sakura was relieved until one of them turned around and yelled something like "eat the humans! Eat the humans!"

"What do they want from us?!" She cried trying to hide the evident pain running produced in her arm.

"They became addicted to chocolate bars!" Tommy yelled as they ran with no direction. That was becoming a habit on those boys.

***

"Why did I choose to keep on going?" Kouji asked himself frustrated by the fact that he had no clue of Sakura's whereabouts. "When I find her, that girl is going to be in so much trouble!" He muttered.

He kept walking through a dark hallway, which he founded, was a dead end. _Perfect! _He analyzed the obstacle in front of him. He founded a stick on the ground and started hitting the barrier with it until it broke, revealing it was only made of old pieces of wood. The noise of the wood crashing with the floor came quite late, and that made Kouji wander how far he was from the ground. He popped his head out of the hole he just made, which now seemed more like a door or a window, and examined the sight.

"What's this?" He asked distractedly; the sight wasn't too good from up there.

The place had more light because of the many holes in the sealing; everything was illuminated by a weird light that gave a bluish tone to the place and Kouji realized that he was kind of far from the floor but that he could get down by sliding through one of the many poles that were placed there. The only thing that worried him was how resistant those poles were. He was thinking of that when he heard two different voices screaming: one was very high and sounded quite scared, the other one was low but that didn't prevent showing his fear.

In a few seconds, Kouji was able to see two boys running desperately. They were the boys he had seen when they arrived to the terminal: the chubby boy and the little one with the huge hat. It was right then when he realized that they were carrying Sakura… well, the fat one was doing the entire job, since the little fellow couldn't help a lot; he was more like running for his life. Kouji couldn't see if Sakura was conscious or not, but that didn't stop him from letting out an exclamation that shortly turned into a grunt.

***

"Sakura, wake up! I can't carry you all the time! I know it hurts… but please wake up NOW!!!!" J.P. pleaded to the fainted girl in his arms without stopping. It was mere luck that they had a grate advantage on the Digimons before Sakura fainted. It was even harder when he had to carry her since he was so afraid of hurting her arm. They both had figured that the pain of her arm was the reason she had fainted, combined with the effort it took her to escape from the Digimons. Sakura let out a few groans before opening her eyes again and feel that sharp pain in her arm again; that was enough to wake a person up and made him/her cry, all in one.

"J.P.? What's going on?!" She asked, trying to control the pain in her voice without success.

He didn't even have time to answer, for the Digimons surrounded them again. It all became a mix of screams of fear and pain, and Sakura used that opportunity to let the pain of her arm out without anyone's suspicions. Suddenly, a new scream joined, but it didn't come from any of the three kids in trouble. It cost a lot of effort to become silent like her new friends, but she made it… eventually. Sakura looked at the noise's direction with pain in her eyes, only to see Kouji Minamoto coming down, sliding from a tube and then breaking it, so it became a practical weapon. All the Digimons stopped biting and jumping around to look at Kouji, who had a smirk on his face. Sakura couldn't smile relieved for too long, since the pain in her arm became stronger by the minute and her tears were struggling to come out with each stab that came across her arm.

All the Digimons charged at the boy, who lodged skillfully their attacks and returned them with double of intensity. He performed a few maneuvers that Sakura didn't even think possible. _What kind of training does he have?! _She silenced her pain with that thought and pulled her mind deeper into the question by observing Kouji.

"Who's that?!" Tommy asked with a smile on his faced, marveled by the fight Kouji was giving.

"That guy's serious!" J.P. said amazed as he placed Sakura on the floor and took a better look at the boy. Sakura wanted to reply but she was afraid to open her mouth and let a painful scream out, so she just watched Kouji and bit her lip until it became white.

Kouji kept on fighting until the Digimons surrounded him. When they had him buried under a hill of living Digimons that threatened to eat him, his recently created weapon hit the Digimon at the top, and with that, Kouji was able to send them all flying by making a circle with the wooden stick. As all of the Digimons crashed with different walls, Kouji lowered the stick and smiled happily and proudly. Sakura got up with a little trouble and a huge effort and moved just a few steps towards Kouji, trying to calm the pain in her arm by gently rubbing it, but she did was afraid that if she touched it too hard she'd make it worse. She stood there, with Kouji's eyes fixed on her face. She didn't even dare to move closer to him in a poor attempt to calm herself down from the pain she was suffering. All of the pink, ugly Digimons that had tried to eat them were lying in the huge space between her and Kouji.

"Why do you always get us into trouble, Little Nuisance?!" He asked, returning to his cold tone, al though he was smiling on his inside for defeating the Digimons and founding Sakura. Now they could resume their search.

Sakura's mind began elaborating something to reply. _Unbelievable! He won't even let me thank him because he's all ready fighting with me! I didn't ask him to save me… again! Why is he such a jerk?! _Sakura's anger was interrupted by the growing pain of her arm. She screamed internally, not being able to hide the hurt in her eyes. Internally was the only way she could cry without breaking down in front of Kouji, J.P., or Tommy... not when she was made uncomfortable by people who cried in front of others and she'd criticized Tommy a while ago for that. She could fix her arm with a bit of help, she just needed to find the time, and if any of them saw her crying they would make a huge deal of it, well she doubted that Kouji would really care. But it was true that her arm was becoming a problem, and the pain was so hard that Sakura couldn't help biting her lip until blood came out of it. _Come on, Sakura! You can't brake down now! Be strong! In a few minutes you'll check it out and everything will be fine. It can't be that serious!_

"Sakura…?" Kouji began, his dark eyes looking again into hers. The look he gave her was weird. It was like… caring. Sakura swore she'd never seen that look on Kouji's face again.

"Don't yet, human!" A Digimon's voice interrupted their. "Don't smile yet!" And right after he said that, a flash of blinding light covered the entire place and, to their surprise, the Digimon transformed into something else.

After the blinding light, a gray, small hill of something similar to pitch appeared. The four kids watched with their eyes wide opened how the thing started moving until it grew to such proportions that they had to raise their heads to see its neck… or the place where its neck should be. The monster had a huge mouth with sharp teeth and weird shapes around its eyes. He didn't have any extremities… or shape at all, but, by the way it growled, the kids could easily tell that he wasn't happy. The frightened screams of J.P. and Tommy were heard louder than what the Digimon growled. If there was something else on that cave, it will definitely hear them. The only thing Sakura pleaded was that the one who came, if somebody did, was on their side. The Digimon growled at Kouji, but something happened that diverted its attention.

As J.P. and Tommy kept on screaming their throats out, the Digimon turned to face them, quite threatening. J.P. and Tommy were on the back, and Sakura was standing ahead of them, closer to the Digimon, who roared once more at her. If the face of the Digimon was hardly bearable, his breath could really kill a person. It smelled worse than dead fish! Sakura became paralyzed by the smell, the Digimon, and her arm. Her heart started beating faster and faster as the Digimon opened his mouth. J.P. and Tommy started to run and yell, leaving Sakura all by herself. Suddenly, her left arm was pulled, forcing Sakura to move and wake up from her trance. Everything happened so fast for Sakura that she took a while to realize what was going on, but when she fell on her knees it was too late to do something: Tommy had returned to save her from the Digimon, so he pulled her left hand and got her out of the Digimon's range, but when they were running, he tripped with a rock, making him and Sakura fall to the ground.

Sakura looked at Tommy and then at the Digimon, who fired a green acid-like thing. Tommy yelled as he though he was going to die, but Kouji quickly jumped to his side and got him out of danger. The acid was so strong that, when it touched the ground three or four holes appeared on the ground, letting more light inside the dark cave. Just a few feet from the holes made by the acid, Kouji was kneeling, carrying Tommy in his arms and pounding loudly. While Kouji tried to figure out a way of his situation, Tommy was shaking uncontrollably. The poor little guy was so frightened!

The Digimon threw its acid again, but Kouji had very good reflexes, and Sakura had seen that. He lodged the attack again and ran to another place. After a few more attacks, there where more holes than ground in the cave. Sakura's arm was hurting a lot, but she was more concerned of what happened to Tommy and Kouji. J.P. was besides an opening, just like the one Kouji had used to save them, but neither of them could move, since the Digimon kept throwing acid all over the place.

"Eww, it smells!" Sakura caught a voice coming from the opening. She turned around only to see a blonde girl, a bit taller than her, and dressed in purple covering her nose. She was with a boy with goggles and red shirt. "What's that Digimon, Bokomon?"

"It's a Raremon." The creature called Bokomon replied. He was white with a gray beak and look like a duck.

"Sakura!" The boy yelled. Sakura recognized her friend Takuya, the one who had left her alone in the train station.

"Takuya? What are you doing here?" She asked surprised, but the reunion was interrupted by Kouji's scream and the sound of the acid consuming the floor again.

Takuya got something out of his pocket, and Sakura saw it was a D-tector, just like hers but it was red and black.

"Spirit, wake up! I need you!" Takuya yelled as he pressed buttons.

"You have a Spirit?" Sakura asked surprised.

"I'm not kidding here!" Takuya yelled, not answering Sakura's question. Sweat was all over his face. Kouji had Tommy in his arms and they had no way out. Raremon was right in front of them, and Kouji couldn't back away, because behind him there was a huge, deep, dark hole that could kill them both. "Come on! Come on! Come on!" Takuya kept yelling as Kouji moved back and fell to his knees when he nearly steps on the void. Nobody could breathe, waiting for Tommy and Kouji to die or for Takuya to do something. "SPIRIT!!!" Takuya yelled.

With a flash of reddish light, Takuya had stopped being Takuya and Agunimon had taken his place. Sakura watched how her friend was taller, had long, yellow hair and his body, protected by a red and black battle armor, and was covered in flames. He didn't even look like Takuya at all! _So this is what the Spirit does! _Agunimon jumped from the high opening and landed right in front of Raremon, who fired at him his green acid again. Agunimon easily lodge it and pushed Raremon to a wall. The Digimon tried to attack him with his acid again, but Agunimon was just too strong, so instead of hitting him, the acid crashed with the sealing, making more and more openings in it. Soon, the cave was illuminated by many beams of light coming from all directions. Agunimon jumped in front of Kouji and Tommy, who couldn't believe their eyes, and blocked the acid that Raremon threw at them.

Suddenly, a flash of light came again, and Agunimon disappeared to become Takuya again.

"What's going on?! Why did I turned back into me?!" He yelled frustrated. As he tried to answer all his questions, Raremon threw more acid right at them.

"Look out!" Sakura yelled at the three boys.

The three of them immediately looked around, and in a desperate attempt of surviving, Takuya grabbed Tommy and they both jumped out of the way. By accident, when Takuya and Tommy jumped aside, they pushed Kouji to the hole.

"Kouji!"

"Oh, no!" Takuya yelled as he tried to reach Kouji, but it was too late. He'd fallen.

Raremon let out something very similar to a laugh and threw his acid at the sealing once more, while all of the kids and the two Digimons that came with Takuya looked at the hole, waiting for something to happen that might save the boy who had just fallen. Another hole was formed in the sealing and a beam of light fell over the hole where Kouji had fallen. _Grate, at least Kouji won't die in the dark! That should make everything better! _Sakura thought sarcastically as she glared at Raremon. Suddenly, all of the beams of light that Raremon had formed moved to the whole where Kouji would certainly die.

"What's going on?!" Sakura asked with a voice thread. She was still on her knees and her arm still hurted, but she also knew that something weird was going on.

A blue light illuminated the cave with such and intensity that forced the kids to close their eyes. When the light grew less intense, they were able to open their eyes. Neither of them believed what they were seeing: another Digimon appeared; he was taller and he was white and blue. His head looked the same like a wolf's. He floated majestically above them with all the beams of light illuminating him beautifully.

"Kouji?" Sakura asked, still with a low voice. Nobody could have heard her, but still, they all gasped.

"Did I look that cool?" Takuya asked Tommy, gaining a nod from his little friend.

"Yeah, just… different."

Sakura turned around to see Takuya's friends. J.P. and the blonde girl's mouth hung open. Takuya and Tommy were also very surprised.

"It's the legendary warrior of light: Lobomon!" Bokomon announced again. This time he had a book on his hands and J.P. and the girl were also contemplating its pages.

"I've never seen anything more beautiful… in my whole life!" The girl exclaimed.

"Me neither!" J.P. added.

"You can say that again!" Takuya yelled and Tommy simply nodded.

_I guess I'll have to agree in that one, _Sakura thought, smiling. _Just don't forget that it's Kouji who you're talking about._

Lobomon stood there, in front of Raremon, but he didn't attack or move. He just waited. Apparently, Raremon wasn't as impressed as the kids, so he opened his mouth and simply threw his disgusting acid at Lobomon. This time, neither of the kids thought that Lobomon might loose. Lobomon quickly lodge the acid.

"Lobo Kendo!" He yelled as he pulled out a blue sword made of light. With that, he quickly lodged the acid Raremon kept throwing at him and jumped over his head, sticking his sword on it.

Raremon let out a scream of pain before colliding and becoming surrounded by the same Digi-codes Sakura had seen on the train.

"Now, you bag of trash! Prepare to be recycled!" Lobomon got his D-tector out. "Fractal Code, digitize!" He yelled, and with a swift move, the Digi-code that surrounded Raremon got inside Lobomon's D-tector, disappearing forever.

The blonde girl let out an exclamation in Italian, but Sakura was a bit more concentrated in getting up than in showing her agreement. Lobomon had been excellent, and Sakura had to recognize that. He was surrounded by an oval of Digi-codes and he turned back into Kouji again, who was kneeling on the ground pounding heavily. Sakura got up and approached him, but Takuya and Tommy were faster since they ran quickly to him.

"Hey, are you Ok?! Let me help you out." Takuya asked politely as he put a hand on Kouji's shoulder. Sakura stood frozen besides Kouji. _He's not going to like that! _She thought as she remembered his expression when she placed a hand on Kouji's shoulder. Kouji opened his eyes suddenly.

"Don't touch me!" He yelled rudely at Takuya. Both, he and Tommy stepped back from him. Kouji stood up with a huge effort and regain his balance. Sakura looked up at him, surprised by how rude he really was. He hadn't ever used that tone on her and she had expected that he'd be mean, but not that much! "I don't need your help, or anyone else's!"

"Kouji…" Sakura mumbled, with a voice thread mixed with pain again. She needed to get a look at her arm, and she needed to do that right then, but she couldn't believe he was being so rude.

"But I guess I should thank you for saving me. I always repay my debts." He continued with the same tone, not looking at Takuya, Sakura or Tommy.

"Stop that!" Sakura whispered irritably because of the pain in her arm.

"I didn't do it so you'd owe me, you know!" Takuya yelled at Kouji, interrupting Sakura.

"My name's Kouji Minamoto. And you are…?" Kouji waited for the answer, but Takuya didn't reply. "So, are you gonna tell me? I can't repay you if I don't know your name."

"I'm Takuya Kanbara." Takuya sighted, defeated.

"Takuya, huh?" Kouji asked reflexive. Then he smirked again and his tone became of satisfaction. "See ya." He said as he started walking again and waved a hand over his head. Sakura stood there, not knowing what to do. Should she apologize to Takuya? No! She wouldn't apologize for something she hadn't done! And she wasn't responsible for what Kouji did! But he had been very rude… even more than when she was with him, and not apologizing would be rude. "Sakura, you coming?" Kouji yelled from behind. Sakura turned to Takuya and the others who had joined him.

"I'll see you around guys." She said as cheerfully as she could, but it wasn't much. "Tommy, you were very brave back there." She said, making Tommy blush. "J.P., thank you for saving me."

"You're welcome!" J.P. replied happily.

"I'll see you both around." She said as she looked at Takuya and the girl that she didn't know. "And…" She thought of apologizing but quickly backed off. "Good luck." She said, then, she turned around and followed Kouji.

She walked through the path Kouji had walked a few minutes later. It felt so horrible to hear her own footsteps echoing in the cave, knowing that everyone was watching her. She walked through the same door Kouji had disappeared through; it was darker than the cave but she was still able to see. The pain of her arm bothered her again.

"Come on! Why did it have to happen to me?!" She cried as she glared at her arm. Her voice was starting to become husky again. "Kouji, where the hell are you?!" She yelled. She couldn't even put her arm in its place because of the lack of light.

"Behind you." He replied indifferently from the darkness. Sakura turned around only to see him leaning in a wall behind her. "Let's move." He said as he started walking. Sakura sighted and followed him. _Here we go again…_

In some minutes of silent and painful walking, they reached the door through which Sakura had fallen. They got up the stairs and founded themselves in the lovely forest again. This time, Sakura's mood didn't improve. Not one bit. She walked to a nearby tree and sat heavily on the ground, looking at her arm. It looked awfully bad. She started moving her hand above her shoulder, trying to figure out the best way of examining without making it hurt so much... and fix it too. It was hard doing something that she hadn't done before!

"How does it feel?" She asked Kouji in a little voice manipulated by pain.

"Hm?" He asked distracted, looking at her.

"How does… it… feel?" She asked again painfully. Now that she wasn't concerned of saving her own life or looking at Lobomon, there was nothing that distracted her from the pain she was feeling and the fear it caused her to look at her arm and know it was helpless. If something really frightened her was pain… internal and external.

"It's cool." He replied as if it was nothing and stood in front of her, blocking the sun and creating a shade on Sakura's body. "What happened to you?"

"You don't care." She replied and looked away.

"How are we going to find your Spirit with that arm?"

"What?" She asked as she looked at him in surprise. "Are you still going to help me? I thought…"

"You tend to get into trouble a lot. Who is going to save you?"

"I don't need to be saved!" She yelled at him.

"Yeah, right."

"Why are you so rude sometimes?" She asked, looking at him. He looked at her in question.

"Why are you so proud?" He returned the question, sitting beneath a tree in front of her and putting his arms behind his head.

"Don't change the subject!" She said sharply and then continued. "Sometimes you can be so… different, and then you become cold out of the blue. Like today with Takuya."

"I… I don't know how to react."

"You don't get many friends?" She guessed.

"You wouldn't understand!" He yelled, but he was quite reflexive about what Sakura had just asked.

"Don't be so sure… And I'm not proud!" Sakura yelled as she kept examining her arm. She'd be sure to ask Kouji about his loneliness sometime, but for that night, Kouji's past traumas discoveries had finished.

"You are."

"I'm not!"

"You are!"

"I am not!"

"You are!"

"I'M NOT!!!"

"Look at you, if you weren't too proud you would have asked for my help with your arm all ready." He replied with a smirk and stood up again.

"It's a waste of time. You won't help me anyway."

"You're right. Normally I wouldn't help you out." He shrugged.

"The truth is..." Sakura began, embarrassed by having to ask for his help. "It scares me to see what's wrong with it... and it also frightens me having to fix it"

"I can see that." He said as he approached her. "Stand up."

"Why?" She asked as she looked at him again. Her right eyebrow questioning.

"Even if I don't like it, I owe you." He replied as he grabbed her left arm and helped her up.

"You don't owe me a thing!" _Actually I owe you… twice, _she thought, but she wasn't going to tell him that.

"If you hadn't fallen through that wall I wouldn't have founded my Spirit. So consider one of you debts paid." He said. _Damn, he does remember I owe him! _Sakura thought. After a while, he added: "I think that's what the voice meant earlier."

"That makes sense." She said, more calmly now.

"Ok, it's not fractured." He said, tilting his head a bit to look better at her arm.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I know how a fractured bone looks like and it's nothing compared like this. It's just dislocated, meaning that 25% of your pain was psychological." He explained.

"Psychological?" She asked, embarrassed. All that pain she was feeling was simply an influence of her brain!?!?!?!?!

"It happens the whole time with people that have never broken a bone or suffered strong external pain." He explained as if it was obvious. Not caring at all.

"How do you know so much?"

"My grandfather is a doctor." Kouji said, making a dissimulated face to the mention of that man.*

"And what…? But she didn't have time to finish her question because, suddenly, Kouji had his arms around her shoulders, hugging her tightly. She was about to protest for the pain it was causing her, how uncomfortable he was making her, and how she'd changed her mind about healing her arm when Kouji beat her to it. "This is going to hurt."

Kouji grabbed her shoulder with his hand, very carefully and pushed it back into its place. A loud '_crack' _was heard and Sakura couldn't help to groan and pound loudly as a few tears came rolling down her eyes. It had hurt more than having it dislocated. Kouji sighted; it had been horrible to hear the crack of her arm, though he knew it was even more horrible to be the one who felt it; he had to thank his stepmother for teaching him to do that.

***

"_Kouji, what is it?" Satomi's came from across the kitchen._

"_Nothing I can't handle." He replied coldly and walked past her, but stopped when he noticed that she was watching him worriedly._

"_Let me help you, please." She begged. He sighted. _

"_It's my finger." He said, turning around._

"_What's wrong with your finger?" She asked sweetly but nervous and got closer to Kouji. She took his right hand and examined his finger. "Oh, I see. You dislocated it."_

"_I suppose."_

"_I'll put it back in place… if you want." She doubted with each word she spoke. It felt like she was afraid of Kouji… or trying to please him. Kouji nodded as his stepmom placed a hand over his finger._

_The painful _'crack' _came in no time and Kouji grunted in pain, but he didn't screamed or cried. He still had the feeling of the past pain on his finger._

"_Better?" She asked shyly. Kouji nodded. "Whenever that happens, you just have to put the bone back into place. It might hurt a bit, but you might not be able to use that bone again if you don't fix it." She smiled a bit._

"_Hum." He replied coldly again and stepped out of the kitchen and went straight to his room, not thinking how that made his stepmom feel. He'd have given everything to have his mother tell him that instead of her…_

***

He kept his attitude indifferent and he tried to separate from Sakura, but something wouldn't let him; Sakura's left hand was holding tightly from Kouji's shirt. She kept her hand attached to his shirt while the right arm remained still, touching gently Kouji's chest and her face buried in his chest, moving slightly when she sobbed.

Her arm was on its place now, and it was better that way… obviously, but it still hurted a bit; she couldn't help to cry a bit and take deep breaths between each sob to calm herself down. It had been awful to hear her own arm crack, it had been awful to run with that arm, but it had been harder to face one of her biggest fears: pain. It was a long story how she had developed that fear, and she wasn't going to increase her pain by thinking of it. While Sakura buried her face in Kouji's chest, he blushed hardly, not knowing what to do. He had never seen a girl crying... let alone a girl crying in his chest! After a few moments of thinking what he should do, he wrapped his arms around Sakura nervously and waited for her to relax a bit.

"Thank you." She finally said, sitting again beneath the same tree. She was also blushing hard after realizing what just happened. She used her left hand to wipe off her tears.

"Yeah." He said, sitting down besides her and looking at the sky. He didn't know what to say, but Sakura let his coldness pass for that time. She knew she wasn't in the position of fighting in that particular occasion. Instead, something else crossed her mind.

"You see how helping people is simple?" She asked, giving him a closed-eyed smile. She'd been looking at Kouji closely during the fight and she had definitely founded out that his arrogance only showed when he was forced to be with other people. It was a mask to prevent them getting closer to Kouji.

"Define 'simple'. I could have been death by now." He stared at her indifferently again.

"What I meant was that I helped you, you helped us, then Tommy helped me, you helped Tommy, Takuya helped us and you saved the day." She explained without taking the smile off her face.

"So that's how you see the world? Like a path where you can be jumping around, helping others as much as you can?" He asked.

"Not only to me. You see the world that way, too" She doubted. "Well, only the part about helping others." She corrected with her sweet voice. "Before Takuya saved you and Tommy, you held Tommy very tight in an attempt to protect him."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He said proudly and look away.

"You might be a jerk with everyone else and say you don't need help, but I can see you're different deep inside you heart. There's another side of you, Kouji."

"That is…" He defended himself.

"So true." She quoted him. "You can't help it because you feel it's the right thing to do, just like me." There was a silent pause and Sakura understood that she was totally right about Kouji. "It means I'm not the only one proud around here."

"You win this time, Little Nuisance." He sighted and looked away.

"Don't call me that!" She replied softly but serious.

They both sat in silence and contemplated the sky. A few Digimon crossed the pink and orange sky flying happily with the wind. _So Kouji does have another side. I just need to find out why he only shows it with me… but that will come eventually, _Sakura was finally invaded by the her tiredness and she laid down in the grass, letting her mind wander until she was asleep. Kouji looked at her, curled up on the green, soft grass, sleeping peacefully. He chuckled a bit.

"What a traveling partner." He whispered to himself and he kept on contemplating the screen of his D-tector. He had found his Spirit thanks to Sakura, and he wasn't going to forget that. Now it was his turn to help her out, for they were tied in that mission, and it wasn't a commitment that either of them would break.

After a while, he got tired and looked at the pink-and-orange sky again, putting his arms behind his head. _She was right about me. With her I feel… different. I feel like she's a different person that what I thought. Maybe I was wrong about her the whole time._ He snapped his head suddenly and looked at Sakura concerned. _Could I be… gaining a friend?! _He watched how her lips outlined a word that he couldn't hear and then some brands of her long hair fell over her face; he couldn't help smiling.

*Satomi's (Kouji's stepmom) father is a doctor. Yep, I just made that up! Let's pretend that he taught Kouji a bit of medicine and all that stuff when his father made him stay with him in order to unite Kouji to his new family or something. :D


	3. Chapter 3: The Silver Star

**Chapter 3 ~the Silver Star~**

"_Hey, Sakura?" Yoichi said while she rested her head on his shoulder under the big tree of the park._

"_What is it?" She asked carefully, looking at his face illuminated by the orange colors of the sunset. _

"_I have been thinking about… something I want to do." He said. He had a way of speaking that Sakura loved. Well, it was natural, since he was one year older than her. _

"_What is that?" She asked, suddenly interested by his mysterious words. _

_Yoichi started to lean closer and closer until their faces were only a few inches apart. Somehow, she knew what he wanted to do, and it was so romantic. Her first kiss was going to be with her beloved boyfriend under a tree in the sunset. The moment couldn't be more perfect for Sakura. Their lips were about to connect when…_

"_YOICHI, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" An angry voice came from the other side of the park, making the kids separate suddenly. They stared at the person who had interrupted them. Sakura stared in question at her, while Yoichi's eyes widened. _

"_Who are you?" Sakura asked with her always-sweet voice, standing up with Yoichi following her in no time. _

"_I'm Yoichi's girlfriend!" She yelled at Sakura while she glared at her. "Who are you?!"_

"_I… I'm his girlfriend." She replied beginning to understand what was going on. She stared at Yoichi, the same as the other girl with long, black hair did once she realized Sakura's innocence. "Yoichi?"_

"_I… let me explain it, Sakura." He pleaded, but Sakura turned around, not wanting to hear it and her heart breaking when she saw that other poor girl who was also leaving. Suddenly, Yoichi's hand closed around her arm making her to turn around. "I told you to let me explain it." He said with his always serious tone, but this time he sounded even more demanding. _

"_Leave me alone!" She yelled as she tried to shake his hand off frenetically, only gaining that Yoichi held it even tighter, causing what was going to be a horrible bruise. _

"_Let me explain it!" He was yelling at that point, weird on him, but Sakura didn't care._

_She closed her free hand and punched her boyfriend right in his eye, making him let her arm go to cover his injured eye; she ran to her house, swearing she'd never cry for a boy again …_

***

_Not the best place to sleep, _Sakura thought angrily as the sun's rays flashed her eyes and, even if she had them closed, she could see the orange light through her translucent eyelids. She opened slowly her eyes only to see, at first, the bright rays literally burning her eyes; after a while she managed to get used to the light's brightness and she was able to open her eyes and take a look around.

The forest was exactly the same as she remembered it, only that the morning light changed a bit the sight. Instead of the orange colors of the afternoon, the forest had a sweet tone of innocence with the white light mixed with a bit of yellow and green. Everything looked younger and even more charming and calmer than the day before. _Speaking of the day before… what happened to Kouji? _Sakura realized that she hadn't seen Kouji since last night. She snapped her head from tree to tree, caves, rocks, she even looked inside the hole she'd made the day before and found no signs of Kouji. Her nightmare wasn't helping either, especially when she needed to find Kouji and she couldn't get Yoichi out of her head. It was then that sharp pains crossed through her hand, making Sakura realize that it was covered in blood.

She tried to clean the blood with the grass that had been her bed, but it wouldn't work. No blood was staying on the grass. After trying to clean the blood even with her own hand, she couldn't help but crying. No more blood was coming from her hand, but she could still feel the stinging of the injury. To make this worse, the simple sight of blood made her feel sick. Her eyes filled with tears of despair for not being able to clean the blood, of her hand, not to mention the fact that she was alone.

"Sakura?" Kouji's voice came from where they had fallen asleep the night before. It was only a matter of seconds before Kouji saw her crying over her blood-covered hand. His eyes reflected something different than his usual indifference. It was like the day before when he founded her hurt at the station. They were… worried, alarmed, and angry, all in one.

"Kouji!" She gasped the moment she saw him. Good time to appear!

"Who…?" Kouji began as he approached Sakura and touched her hand, but he was cut off by a flashing of light that came from Sakura's hand.

It was a beautiful silver and white light that illuminated the whole forest. They could have sworn that it was a star, because it was too bright and pretty that neither of them could take their eyes off it. Just like water, the light cleaned all the blood, revealing a small cut on Sakura's palm underneath a drop-shaped object. It was indeed a little drop of a material that looked like silver. It gave the impression of being liquid, because of something inside moving like sliver colored water, however, it was as solid as a rock. Kouji immediately let go of her hand and contemplated the drop that move slightly on Sakura's palm.

"What happened?" Sakura asked as she took the little drop with her other hand and stared at it. It seemed so fragile.

"I… don't know." Kouji replied. "What happened to you, by the way?"

"I don't know either." She admitted. "I woke up and my hand was all ready like that."

"Maybe you just cut yourself during the night." Kouji suggested. "It wouldn't be the first time you do something stupid without realizing." He teased again.

"Hey! It's not fair! You are supposed to be helping me, not reminding me how dumb you thing I am!" She would have yelled harder, but she just didn't feel like it; her blood pressure was probably low.

"I didn't…" Kouji began, but some voices interrupted them.

The first voice sounded sweet and helpless, while the other ones sounded husky and frightening. Sakura recognized the voices right away: there were Pagumon. She immediately stood up, followed by Kouji, who listened very carefully to the voice's direction.

"Kouji…" Sakura began, believing that Kouji wouldn't agree to help the Digimon in trouble.

"I know." He replied to Sakura's surprise, and then kept listening. After a while, he started running towards some trees; Sakura followed him in no time.

That part of the forest was darker and deeper, even if it was in the morning. _Kouji can surely run fast_, she thought as she tried with all her strength to keep up with him. Just when she was about to catch him, he stopped suddenly, making Sakura crash with his back, but she didn't even had time to rub her forehead. The same husky voice she'd heard the day before was speaking right in front of them. Sakura's hand tightened around Kouji's arm.

"What do you have there, little fellow?!" The Pagumon laughed.

"Leave me alone!" The other Digimon yelled with his little voice.

"Hey!" Sakura whispered, and she was determined to stop that when Kouji pushed her aside just in time to hide from other six Pagumon that joined the one that was messing up with the frightened, little Digimon.

"Hush! Do you want to let them see us?" Kouji whispered, peering from behind of the big tree they had used as hiding place.

"I can't let them do that! We have to do something!"

"Let me handle it." Kouji turned around to look at her right in the eye and smirked, holding his D-Tector on his right hand.

"Show off!" Sakura whispered.

Kouji ignored her comment and just kept smirking, getting a good hold at his D-Tector.

"Execute!" He yelled as the same blinding light appeared, accompanied by the Codes she'd seen the day before. "Spirit Evolution!"

As the blue light disappeared, Lobomon stood still in front of Sakura. He looked around in search of other Pagumon that could attack him, but he found nothing. Then, before Sakura could say anything, he got out his sword and stepped out from behind the tree. Without losing any time, he started attacking the Pagumon, who immediately fled; then, Lobomon disappeared, leaving Kouji in his place. Sakura was so surprised of how quickly it had all finished that she had to blink repeatedly to realize that it was all over.

"A-are you all right?" She asked the little creature. Kouji simply stood there, staring.

"I think so… thank you!" The little Digimon exclaimed.

"No problem." Kouji replied. Sakura was thinking about saying that same thing, but Kouji had done all the work; he was the one that had all the credit. Still, she was surprised that he had replied.

"So… what are you?" Sakura asked.

"I'm a Poyomon!" The Digimon announced happily as he waddled around and rubbed his head against Sakura's leg.

"A Poyomon?" Sakura giggled. "Oh, you are so cute!" She couldn't help exclaiming.

"Yeah, until they try to eat you." Kouji muttered. Sakura stood up and walked to where he was, making sure the Poyomon wasn't following.

"Don't be so rude! You just saved him!"

"We don't know what it is that I saved." Kouji said, looking at the apparently innocent Poyomon.

"What is your point? Just the fact that he's a Digimon doesn't mean he's evil!" Sakura's anger grew with each passing instant. Why Kouji couldn't trust anyone!

"Not because he looks innocent it means he is not dangerous." Kouji fought back. _Touché, _Sakura thought angrily.

"Anyway, if we are nice, he won't hurt us." She glared a bit at Kouji and then went back to where the Poyomon was. Kouji just stood there, not knowing what he really felt.

"Can you help us?" Sakura asked the Poyomon. "We are looking for a Spirit."

"I'm sorry." The Poyomon looked down. "I don't know anything about a spirit." He apologized.

Kouji let out a little grunt, letting clear his disagreement at sharing information with a Digimon they didn't know as he walked away and leaned on a faraway tree, crossing his arms over his chest. Right then, Sakura's hand began aching again, and she let out a little grunt. The Poyomon approached her, and Kouji watched her closely with troubled eyes, but he didn't move a muscle.

The silver drop in her pocket started to glow almost as bright as the first time. Sakura got it out and it started to spin, suspended in the air until it stopped and pointed at Kouji. Both, Sakura and the Poyomon stared at the drop and then at Kouji, who separated from the tree and approached them. In the minute he stood between Sakura and the Poyomon, the drop stopped glowing and it fell heavily into Sakura's palm again.

"What…?" Sakura and Kouji were about to ask, but Poyomon interrupted… again.

"It's the Silver Star!" He announced with fear.

"The Silver Star?" Sakura asked.

"Do you know what this is?" Kouji asked too, pointing at the drop Sakura held.

"No, but I can take you to someone who can." Poyomon offered.

"Is it very far from here?" Sakura asked. "Will they give us water?" She was literally dying of thirst.

"So you are trying to head to the unknown village with him?" Kouji asked, rising and eyebrow.

"That's my intention." She replied, a bit frightened of what Kouji might think, but she was also determined to go to that village, find what that star was.

"Now you're thinking." He smirked.

Sakura looked at him with her eyebrows raised. Had he agreed to her idea? That usually didn't happen!

"Well, Poyomon, what are you waiting for? We don't have all day!" Kouji looked at the small creature until he waddled ahead and they were able to follow him.

"Why did you change your mind?" Sakura asked him in a low voice. He shrugged.

"Curiosity." He lied. Actually, he kept thinking it was a bad idea to follow the Poyomon, but he wasn't in the mood to argue with Sakura.

***

After a while of walking silently, not even the Pollomon tried to modify the silence, even if he had a lot to share with the two kids. He knew everything they didn't about the Digital World and how to find Sakura's Spirit.

She was distracted by her Spirit and she decided to get lost in her thoughts until one of the two guys decided to talk. Why was it that Kouji had founded his Spirit and she hadn't? If he was right and she had played an important part in the finding of his Spirit, what part would Kouji play this time? _What does it really feels to Evolve? _She was right; Kouji had only said it was 'cool', but he hadn't specified any details. He was so indifferent and he would never show her his true feelings!

That what was made him different from other boys, like Takuya or Yoichi. Takuya was always happy and he tried to be optimistic, or at least that was the impression Sakura had on him, and Yoichi… he always tried to please her but she hardly saw him after he moved to a house far from hers and from their school… and he had turned out to be a stupid liar, though he still looked for her forgiveness, but Kouji was always a mystery. She wondered how Kouji would take it if she called him 'friend'.

"What's in this village, anyway?" Kouji asked, sounding bored. Sakura couldn't blame him; she was also very tired from walking so much.

"It is not really a village." Poyomon waddled happily. "There are only a couple of houses. We are looking for one of the wisest Digimon I know."

"Grate." Kouji muttered.

"Is it safe to go there?" Sakura asked. She was beginning to understand Kouji's point. What if that old Digimon wasn't particularly nice? Poyomon was about to talk when Kouji answered.

"Safety doesn't worry me as much." He said, very reflexive.

"Why not?" Sakura asked. It was uncomfortable having to talk to Kouji while the Poyomon kept listening and interrupting.

"Because I can Evolve." He simply replied.

"Well, excuse me, but for people that do not have a Spirit yet, safety is a big concern!" She yelled at him, putting again her hands on her hips.

"While you are with me you'll be safe." Kouji looked away and placed his hand on his pocket again. "I can protect you." He softly added, but he knew Sakura hadn't heard him… or he hoped.

The truth was that she had heard him very well and she knew that it was a bit true, even if she hated to admit it. He could fight any evil Digimon that came across their path. She hated to depend on someone and she definitely was determined to find her Spirit soon. Still, she was surprised by the glimpse of cuteness she'd caught on Kouji's voice.

"So, what worries you, then?" She proceeded as if she hadn't heard what he said, making Kouji relax a bit.

"The kind of Digimon we might find there." Kouji admitted, turning around with his characteristic serious tone. Sakura sighted. "What?"

"What, what?" She replied as she blushed a bit and lowered her eyes.

"Why did you sigh?" Kouji's eyes looked for hers, but she didn't face him.

"Personal reasons." She simply replied, hoping that would shush him for a minute.

"I don't buy that." Kouji replied, stuffing his hands in his pockets again.

"Then, don't."

"Look, there it is the house of the Digimon I was talking about!" Poyomon cried happily as he jumped slightly.

The three of them contemplated the old house, which was more like a tent. Sakura wondered how someone could live in a place like that. They all hurried down to the "house", just like the Poyomon told them. Outside the tent, about 20 different Digimon were waiting by what could be the entrance to the tent. Some were sweet and cute like Poyomon; in fact, there were about two other Poyomon at the front of the line.

"Wow, all these Digimon are waiting to see the same Digimon we came to see?" Sakura asked. Poyomon nodded.

"I think I know how to get first." Poyomon said with his cheerful voice and waddled to the front of the line. "Wait here." He added.

"You think he'll be fine?" Sakura asked as she saw how the little Poyomon got inside the tent, earning some ugly looks from the others.

"You worry too much for a stranger." Kouji said.

"I… don't know why." Sakura admitted as she thought of that idea. "Can I ask you something?" She asked Kouji.

"Would a negative reply make a difference?" He returned as he looked at her. She hated that everyone was taller than her. Kouji was, at least, one inch and a half. taller than her. She had to look up to see him.

"Why you never tell me what you are thinking?"

"Because I don't want you to know, Little Nuisance." He replied coldly. She crossed her arms above her chest. _He's doing it again…_

"I tell you what; we are going to play a little game." She said with a smile showing on her face.

"I don't like games, Sakura." Kouji fought back. The truth was that he could handle games very well, but Sakura wasn't the type of girl who wouldn't invent a game if it wasn't for selfish purposes.

"Oh." She simply replied, sounding disappointed. "It's… fine, then." Her smile faded with every word and her eyes filled with a few tears.

"Sakura…" Kouji began, totally confused by what was happening.

"No, it's all right." She sobbed. "I just… wanted to play… a game, but if you don't like them… I guess I should wait for Poyomon then." She kept going as she turned around and started cleaning her tears with her arm, smirking to herself.

"Well, I bet he won't be long." Kouji said angrily as he turned his back on her.

"What?!" Sakura yelled as she turned around, looking at Kouji's back with her mouth opened. The traces of fake tears were still in her eyes. "That trick is supposed to work always with boys! What's wrong with you?!"

"I don't fall for those things." Kouji smirked as he turned around.

"Damn you!" Sakura muttered and Kouji simply chuckled.

"Who would have thought this could get interesting?" Kouji said after a moment. "What game do you want to play?" He thought severely about ignoring Sakura, but curiosity beat him this time.

"You… you are going to play?" She mumbled. He shrugged. "Well, since I realized that there wasn't enough communication between you and me, I came up with this game: you need to tell me everything that is on your mind, and vice versa." Sakura explained.

"That's it?" Kouji asked. Sakura nodded shyly. It wasn't the most brilliant game. "I'll play with one condition: the person that says more thoughts by the end of today wins."

"Wins what?"

"Hum…" Kouji doubted. "I'll think of that later."

"Well then, sounds like a good game!" Sakura cheered up, knowing that her first game had been a complete fraud. "That's one point for me!"

"Silly girl!" Kouji muttered and turned around again. _This is the worst idea I've had in my whole life. Why did I agreed to play… and under those stupid rules I invented?!_

"Hey! What's your problem?!" Sakura yelled at him.

"The thought crossed my mind." Kouji defended himself. "That's one point for me, too."

"Move around! Where are they?!" A female's voice came from the front of the line, interrupting Sakura and Kouji's insult game.

Kouji and Sakura moved to one side of the huge line to see well. There was a Digimon woman whose skin was white as a sheet of paper and she was dressed in black. She had four arms, similar to those of a spider. In fact, she was creepy. Still, she didn't look old.

"Ah, the humans!" She exclaimed. "Make way for them!" She commanded as the other Digimon in the line moved to the side glaring at the human kids, leaving a clear path for them. "Come on, my dears. Don't be shy."

"Kouji?" Sakura whispered, careful not to move her lips to much. She had a bad feeling about it. Kouji's hand was suddenly around Sakura's arm, holding it tightly.

"It's all right!" Poyomon encouraged as he jumped happily. Neither of the kids had realized that he was standing there until he spoke. "This is the Digimon that can help us!" He exclaimed with joy… as usual.

"Come on, let's go." Kouji whispered. "This was a bad idea."

"Wait!" Sakura cried. "Poyomon trusts her; that means we can trust her too." Sakura said, even if she was ice cold.

"Sakura, your trusting-Poyomon-games have gone too far this time." Kouji muttered severely, but they didn't have time to move.

In a blink of an eye, the Digimon had moved from where the Poyomon was as fast as a spider would have and was behind Kouji and Sakura. She kindly wrapped her arms around their shoulders and pushed them forward to the tent.

"There is nothing to fear… except my appearance." She laughed. "I won't harm you; all I want is to help you find what you need." She said kindly and with a warm smile, but her appearance was still creepy.

Kouji could do nothing but to glare at Sakura, who smiled back nervously, knowing that, if something happened to them, it would be her fault.

***

The inside of the tent was definitely better than the outside; that was for sure. Sakura and Kouji entered the tent, escorted by the Digimon, who kept talking about how much she wanted to help them. Poyomon also entered behind them.

The tent was bigger than it looked. It had all kinds of books and weird things, probably used for whatever it was that the Digimon did. The smell was delicious, though, like a mix of chocolate and vanilla, which were Sakura's favorite sweets. The inside was warm and cozy and the sun filtered by the many opens the tent had in the 'ceiling'. The beige color of the tent's fabric gave Sakura a familiar feeling.

"Please, take a seat!" The Digimon said cheerfully as she pointed some cushions set gently on the floor. They all had different patterns of very vivid colors. "I am Webmon."

"Thank you very much." Sakura said shyly as she and Kouji sat down. Poyomon also waddled to where they were sitting and climbed up to Sakura's shoulder.

"How can you help us?!" Kouji asked, suddenly with a horrible tone of hostility that Sakura considered appropriate for that situation.

"All in time, sweetie." She said as she prepared something, probably drinks, and then sat besides Kouji. He looked at her weirdly and decided to ignore her presence. "Now, Poyomon said you have the Silver Star." She continued. Kouji looked at her, the same as Sakura. "I'm going to have to see it."

Kouji glared at the Poyomon, now shivering slightly in Sakura's shoulder. He turned to face Webmon, but Sakura spoke first.

"No." She said coldly, tightening her fist around her silver drop, still in her pocket. "Tell us what it is first and then we will decide if you get to see it… or not." She was very serious this time. Kouji had never heard that tone in Sakura's sweet voice.

"Sakura, what are you doing?" Poyomon asked with his little voice, but only Sakura heard him. "You need to do whatever Webmon says or she is going to be very angry." He said with fear. Sakura simply ignored him, the same as she ignored Kouji's proud-like smile.

"First of all, girl, it's only _your _star, so you have no need on getting Poyomon or this handsome knight in shinny armor in your decisions." Webmon said, suddenly serious as she looked at Sakura coldly, then at Kouji with a weird, daydreamer look that made him very uncomfortable, and back at Sakura with that glare. "Second: when I ask for something, I expect only what I asked for. You can't challenge me like that!"

"All right, that's enough!" Kouji butted in, preventing Sakura's offensive comment he knew she was about to say. "This is not working out. Sakura, let's go." Kouji grabbed Sakura's hand and they both moved to the entrance.

Webmon stood there, shocked by what had just happened. Anger grew in all her system and, for once in her life, she was jealous of seeing that boy care so much for that stupid, little brat. In a blink of an eye, she was behind Sakura. She took her free arm and made her turn around with such a force that she let go of Kouji's arm. Everything happened so fast that Sakura couldn't react; the only thing she felt was that same sharp pain in her palm. Suddenly, Webmon's arms tightened around her and threw away. Luckily, she landed safely on the cushions, but it still hurt a bit.

A blinding, blue light appeared again and Lobomon had Webmon trapped between a wall and his sword. Sakura could have sworn she didn't hear Kouji's words for the Evolution to happen.

"So you are a knight in shinny armor after all, pretty boy!" Webmon laughed at Lobomon, who simply grunted and moved his sword closer to her neck.

"Wait!" Sakura yelled from behind.

Lobomon turned around and saw her kneeling over the cushions, staring at him with pleading eyes. He turned around and saw Webmon's mocking face again, with those eyes that meant only daydreaming about something… probably him. It had been very obvious for both Kouji and Sakura that Webmon had something with Kouji… and that was very frightening. Actually, Sakura wouldn't have been surprised if she saw Kouji's eye twitch.

"Don't do it. Let's just leave, please." She pleaded with her always sweet voice, but with a very convincing tone.

Lobomon sighted and lowered his sword, letting Webmon free. She fell to her knees and stared at Lobomon, who walked towards Sakura and, before he helped her up, transformed into Kouji again. Sakura walked over to where Poyomon had landed and picked him up easily. The little creature opened his eyes cutely, letting Sakura know he was fine. She hugged him gently and inspected him to see if he wasn't hurt.

Kouji was waiting for her, not caring to have a dangerous Digimon on his back. It was then when Sakura felt the sharp pain on her palm again and this time she could see that the drop glowed again through her pocket. She turned around and saw Kouji's eyes fixed on her; then, she saw terrified how Webmon was about to attack him... or, at least, she thought that.

"Look out!" She managed to say as she quickly searched in her pockets, but she knew it was too late. Kouji turned around only to see more clearly how Webmon rose above him.

Suddenly, another blinding light, this time silver, illuminated the tent and, taking a solid form, attacked Webmon, crashing her against a wall and knocking her out.

They both looked terrified at how Webmon stayed there, lying on the ground without moving. Sakura felt the temptation of going over there and see if she was all right, but Kouji grabbed her arm again and headed towards the door, making sure that Sakura was in the front this time, where he could watch her closely. It was no lie that Webmon had a special interest in that star and he was in a bit of a hurry to get her out of the tent, and himself out of Webmon's sight. That experience had definitely made him nervous, though he would never admit it.

When they got outside, all of the Digimon that were waiting in the line had gone and the "village" was empty and cold.

"Let's go back to where we came from." Sakura suggested.

"No." Kouji shook his head and looked back at the tent. "Let's go inside the forest and forward. I have the impression that she is not going to give up that easily."

And, with that said, the three of them headed towards the inside of the forest, where the trees grew taller and darker. In fact, it was a bit late and it was beginning to get cold and windy. Sakura had never seen a sunny day become cloudy and windy in such a short time; that wasn't normal.

***

"What happened to the weather?" Sakura asked in an attempt to improve the heavy silence with a random topic

"It is Webmon. She can change any climate when she feels like it." Poyomon said in a little whisper.

"So we are still in the middle of the day but it appears to be dusk?" Kouji asked and Poyomon nodded in reply. "Grate."

"It's not the best experience I've had." Sakura commented.

"I'm sorry." Poyomon suddenly cried as he looked down in shame. "It was my entire fault." He sobbed.

"That is not true!" Sakura exclaimed, hurt by seeing the Poyomon like that. "We should have been smarter."

"We?" Kouji asked again, in an apparently bad mood. Both of them stared at him. "I'm going to take a walk." He said, standing up and walking away.

"I need some air too." Sakura said angrily and she followed Kouji. "Wait here, I won't be long." She added, looking at Poyomon.

She made sure that they had walked enough before she spoke. She was perfectly aware that the little Poyomon liked to listen to other's conversations.

"What's the matter?" She asked once Kouji stopped. Curiously, she wasn't angry at him for how he'd treated Poyomon.

"How can you treat him well? How can you be cute and nice to him after all he did¡?" Kouji hadn't turned to face her yet.

"I don't… get it." Sakura looked at Kouji's back. Talking with his back wasn't particularly helping. It was then when he turned around. _I knew it!_She thought, _he turns to face me when he considers me retarded or stupid. _

"What is it that you don't get?!" He yelled desperately. "Didn't you hear that he told that horrible spider-like monster that you had a star?!"

"We didn't forbid him to do it." Sakura defended Poyomon, but the truth was that she knew he had gotten them into trouble. Kouji stared at her with his eyes wide opened.

"What is wrong with you!? Haven't you realized that he is working for her?!" Kouji yelled as he approached her.

"That is a very severe accusation, Kouji." Sakura whispered shyly. "We still don't know what he is doing."

"You…?" He stopped and looked at her. "You mean you all ready suspect him?"

"I didn't say that."

"I didn't say that you said it." Kouji replied. "You do suspect him."

"Yes, but I don't think he works for her." Sakura lowered her head sadly. Kouji moved closer to her.

"Why not?" He proceeded more carefully.

"Because a creature so little and innocent wouldn't do that willingly." She replied, knowing that Kouji would disagree with that idea.

"Sakura, you put too much faith in someone you don't know!" Kouji breathed again. She knew that was going to happen, Kouji wouldn't forgive the Poyomon never ever.

"I think everyone has… a reason to do things." She was going to say 'disserve a second chance', but she remembered Yoichi and she remembered how he kept asking for his second chance before she left. Not everyone could get a second chance.

"Yeah, what's his reason?" Kouji asked defiantly.

"That's what I'm trying to find out." She said, suddenly sounding very sure of herself. Kouji sighed heavily and looked at her. He had to admit she was a smart girl. "By the way, I'm winning our little game." She cheered up.

"That is not true."

"It is!"

"Yeah, you wish!" He teased as he ran back to the 'camp'.

She took a while to realize that he had challenged her, but Kouji hadn't a big advantage on her. He was running slowly on purpose! Sakura immediately accepted the challenge and chased after him.

"You can't catch me, can you?!" Kouji teased as he increased his speed little by little, provoking Sakura.

"Let's see if you laugh at me when I win you!" Sakura yelled as she put more effort into her running and suddenly appeared by his side, not knowing what she wanted to do when she got to him. Maybe push him, or just laugh at him once she won.

***

"Thanks for laughing at me, Kouji." Sakura hid her face from the two of them, trying to cover her shame and ignore Kouji's resonant laughs.

After she glared daggers at him, Kouji breathed deeply and narrowed his laughs to quiet chuckles.

It was late at night and none of the three travelers could sleep. Sakura was still angry for what had happened at the race, and Poyomon, knowing it was his fault she'd lost, had said nothing since then. The truth was that seconds before Sakura won Kouji after a very harsh competition Poyomon had popped out of some bushes, scaring Sakura to death and making her fall and loose all concentration. Result: proud Kouji had won the race with a minimum effort. They hadn't spoken much to each other since then.

The night, which was supposed to be a nice, sunny, and cozy mid-day, began chasing them after their little, disappointing race and everything became so dark that none of them could see a thing, including each other. The most horrible part was that there were no stars, logically, so Sakura couldn't distract herself from her anger.

"I don't understand why you can't light up a fire!" Sakura spoke reluctantly, forced by the shivers that had taken over her.

"I told you, if we light up a fire, Webmon will find us easily." Kouji explained for the fifth time in one hour. He was getting tired of having to explain that over and over again, but he was happy for winning the race.

"You realize that the temperature has decreased a lot, right?" Sakura asked with sarcasm in her voice. Of course he had noticed it, but he wouldn't light a fire!

"Yeah, I can feel that." He replied, concentrating all his strength in not yelling at her.

Sakura, however, felt the grate impulse of throwing a rock to his head. The bad part was that she couldn't see where he was, and she really doubted that he was in the same place he had been three hours ago. To make it even more realistic, her hand was resting above a particularly big rock. She smiled widely to herself thinking that she could actually do it if it wasn't so dark...

"You are thinking about doing something to me, right?" Kouji wondered, suddenly preoccupied by the silence that had taken place.

"How did you guessed?!" She asked surprised, not feeling like denying a horrible truth.

"Was I right?!" Kouji asked terrified and a noise was heard, Sakura guessed he stood up and started walking.

"Oh, come on! Don't tell me you are scared!" Sakura teased, amused by Kouji's sudden fear. "It was only going to throw a rock on your head." She chanted happily as she knelt in the ground and tried to find where Kouji was, following the sound of his footsteps.

"A rock on my head?! What are you trying to do, kill me?!" He yelled, only this time his voice sounded behind Sakura.

"No! Just… hurt you a bit." She said shyly and she thanked the darkness for covering her blush and her shivers from Kouji's deep eyes.

"Nice way of repaying your debts." Kouji simply replied; Sakura couldn't have guessed, but he was smiling. _Hopeless, _he thought calmly again.

Silence took over again, but Sakura knew Kouji hadn't return to his original spot. Suddenly, a weird noise was heard within the camp. Sakura immediately figured it was her teeth chattering.

"I didn't know Digimon could actually feel cold." Kouji muttered from a different part of the circle they formed. "Listen to that teeth chattering."

"Amm…" Sakura began shyly, gaining Kouji's attention. "It is me who is shaking terribly." She admitted, feeling how her cheeks grew hotter and hotter with every word she said. At least her face wasn't cold!

She heard Kouji's steps from around the camp until they stopped. It was so uncomfortable not seeing him! Suddenly, Sakura felt a pair of warm hands over her hands and her heart started to beat faster. More blood rushed to her cheeks.

"Are you cold?" Kouji asked, sounding right in front of her. She would have answered no, but the shivers betrayed her.

"A little." She admitted reluctantly with a cute, involuntary tone that could have melted anyone's heart.

Suddenly, her cold, bare arms felt something warm over them. The piece of clothing was soft and warm and it released a sweet, characteristic smell Sakura could only link to Kouji.

"Put it on." He 'encouraged' with his indifferent tone again.

_You ruined it, Kouji, _Sakura thought as he slipped her arms through the long sleeves. After she put on the jacket, she began shaking her hands in front of her, so the sleeves that were longer than her arms bounced and moved joyfully. She couldn't help to giggle; she'd never used a jacket or a blouse a couple of sizes bigger than her own, and not even Yoichi had lent her a jacket.

"Are you sure you are not cold?" Sakura asked, fearing that Kouji might die while she had his jacket.

"I'm fine. You keep it." Kouji said as he shrugged, but Sakura couldn't see him. _You are more important, _he added in his mind. _Is she? I mean, she's a person and she's… yes, she is my friend and I'm willing to help her in everything she needs, but why am I…?_

"What did you felt today, at the tent?" She interrupted Kouji's train of thoughts as she played with the jacket's sleeves.

"When Webmon flirted with me or when she tried to kill you?" He asked, hearing how she giggled and feeling the air she generated when she shook the long sleeves. _Sometimes she can be such a little girl_, he rolled his eyes.

"In both times." Sakura replied instantaneously, not distracting herself from her activity.

"When she flirted with me… I don't know." He sounded reflexive. "It was frightening, I suppose."

"Kouji Minamoto was frightened?" Sakura asked in a fake surprise as she giggled and measured how big the sleeves were in relation to her arms.

"When she tried to kill you…" He proceeded, ignoring the sarcastic comment. "I felt protective and… worried." He finished, though it sounded like a question, and he blushed. Sakura stopped playing with the sleeves and looked up to where Kouji's voice came from and, after her eyes focused better, she was able to see his body's outline.

"Worried? I thought you didn't care about me at all." She whispered, unsure if she wanted Kouji to hear that.

"I do care about you." He whispered softly. It was evident that they were talking about things they didn't want the other to hear. "You are… my only friend, Little Nuisance."

"I am?" Sakura asked in a soft voice.

Kouji did consider her a friend! She… had managed to get a friend after all those years of trying to find someone that might actually agree with her instead of just ignore her. She had a friend in a guy she could hardly stand until that morning. A boy that had proven to be someone, even if he was 11 years old. He could be strong and smart and very quiet and kind of a lonely wolf, but he could also be sweet and caring and nice and… and… _No! Whoa! Stop! Halt! Why am I thinking this?! _Sakura scolded herself for almost ruin it. She couldn't see Kouji like something else and so soon! She had Yoichi; she _loved _Yoichi. Kouji was just a collateral damage of her relationship. He was her friend and nothing more! _And keep that in mind! _She added.

"You, don't know how hard it is to make friends." Kouji kept on going, unaware of Sakura's internal debate about him.

"Believe me, I know what it is." Sakura said sadly. She could only see dark and Kouji's outline, so it was like talking to nothing. "You are also my friend, Kouji... my best friend" She admitted.

"I still don't support that we keep on going with Poyomon." He breathed.

"Shouldn't we doubt of Webmon instead?" Sakura asked, tired of the old argument.

"We'll talk about that tomorrow." Kouji ended one of the longest conversations they ever had. He doubted before adding a shy: "Sleep well, Little Nuisance."

"Huh?" Sakura opened her eyes, trying to find where Kouji was, but she knew he wasn't in front her anymore. She'd heard him move before he spoke. "Good night, Kouji." She sighed as her cheeks, which had been normal until then, grew hotter and hotter until she knew she had blushed for what Kouji said and for having to reply it; then, warmed by Kouji's jacked and the sweet smell that it released, she immersed herself in a dreamless sleep.

***

"Sakura, wake up." A voice sounded in Sakura's insides as she felt how something shook her. That reminded her of the first time she'd woken up in the Digital World… and it hadn't been nice; she had ended up with a tremendous cut on her palm.

"Let go of me!" She yelled again, fearing to open her eyes and find with the dreaded vision of blood again. Her obsession of discovering who had made that cut on her hand had passed.

"It's me, you are safe!" The voice yelled again, only this time it was clearer than the first.

"No! Let go of me!" She kept screaming with her eyes shut, though she was completely aware of her situation. "Stay away from me!" As if those were the magical words, the hands that had been shaking her disappeared and the only thing that she could hear were the sounds of dry leaves and branches breaking with every step the person took. Only then she dared to open her eyes.

"Nice to see you are back in reality." Kouji whispered from his current position –kneeling in front of her- with a little smile.

"Oh, God, Kouji! I…"

"Shhhh!" Kouji interrupted and motioned her to shut up. "She's here."

"Webmon is here?!" Sakura whispered, trying to find where she was, but she could see anything out of normal. "Where?"

"Near. I know. I can hear her." Kouji replied.

"Maybe we can set her up." Sakura suggested.

"Do we let him be the bait?" Kouji moved his head towards the sleeping Poyomon.

"No. I'll be the bait."

"That's out of the question!" Kouji looked deeply into her eyes again with that little trace of preoccupation he had shown frequently the past two days.

"Why?! It is our only chance!" She tried to convince him, seeing at how he denied with his head before she stopped talking. "You know she wants the star more than anything in the world! And she knows I have it! I can stay here with Poyomon and we'll be bait; when shows herself, Lobomon can attack easily from behind."

"Sakura…"

"You know it is our only chance to get rid of her!"

"What if something happens to you for being bait?" He whispered. The phrase would have been cute if it wasn't by the fact that they were still whispering.

"You worry too much for a simple friend." She giggled. "I have the star to protect me, Kouji. Just relax."

"Fine, you win!" Kouji said as he sighed resigned. "I'll be right there, Ok?"

"Yes, I'm fine, Kouji." She giggled.

"All right, just… don't be scared." He said before he stood up and quickly disappeared in the trees.

"Ok, Sakura." She spoke to herself as she took a few deep breaths to calm herself down and walked towards the sleeping Poyomon. "Step two: act normal and wake up Poyomon."

***

Kouji searched the perimeter until he thought he founded a good spot to check on Sakura and attack Webmon. If their plan worked right, they should be able to win her easily. He silently sat behind a tree with his D-Tector in his hand and waited until Webmon showed. He could see Sakura's figure as she woke up Poyomon and wondered around their 'camp'. He smiled. He had to admit it was a good plan. The girl was really smart. It wasn't until he watched her again the he realized she still had his jacket. He didn't feel cold, thought. It was just weird not having his blue jacket like he usually did.

"I have to admit it was a great plan." A female's voice spoke behind Kouji.

Kouji turned around quickly and he faced a total different problem. It wasn't Webmon, but the new Digimon did look a bit like her. Or, just her face, at least. It was literally a spider's body with Webmon's head. She had it all: the huge body, the eight arms, she even walked like a spider, and, this time, she didn't have legs, only arms... or whatever they were. He didn't have time to say something, because what had been Webmon had him trapped with her arms.

"Do you love me now that I became Poisonmon?" She asked with that same lost look she always gave Kouji.

"What's the matter with you?" Kouji freaked out, of course he just kept his tone indifferent, but he nearly twitches his eye in front of her. He needed to find the way of using her appropriately.

"You'll come with me. I liked your plan of setting someone up!" Poisonmon said as she looked with jealousy at Sakura.

"It is a good plan, but you are forgetting one thing!" Kouji yelled as he got a good hold of his D-Tector. "Execute! Spirit Evolution!" And the same blue light surrounded by Codes appeared. Lobomon appeared again and, just as he reached for his sword, he froze.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Poisonmon warned as she held one of her spider web strings to prevent Lobomon to get his sword out. "We'll play a little game, sweetheart." Webmon laughed.

_It definitely sounded cuter when Sakura said it, _Kouji thought, trying to hide his disgust from Poisonmon.

"Ok, here's the deal." She proceeded. "If you refuse to come with me, I'll tell Poyomon to kill Sakura, and believe me, he can do it." She laughed. Kouji turned around and looked at Sakura, sitting on the ground besides Poyomon, totally unaware of everything that was happening at the moment with Poisonmon.

"That is blackmail, not a game!" Kouji had finally founded that Poyomon did worked for her… and he had left Sakura alone with him!

"It's your call, pretty boy. You come with me, or she dies."

***

_Kouji's taking too long. Something is not right, _Sakura thought as she looked around, trying to find Kouji or Lobomon with the moon's light, but she couldn't see much. Poyomon was still in her shoulder, though.

"How more time are we going to wait for Kouji, Sakura?" Poyomon asked with his cute voice.

"Well… I don't know." She admitted. Then, she stood up, knowing that their plan had failed. "Come on, let's go look for him." She said as she started walking with Poyomon on her shoulder.

"How are we going to find him?" Poyomon asked, and he was right. They had no clue of where to search for Kouji.

Suddenly, it clicked her. The drop had pointed at Kouji when they separated, back when they founded Poyomon! Hoping it would work, Sakura stuffed her hands in her pocket and got the drop out. She looked at it with pleading eyes, knowing she needed to find Kouji. It had been her plan in the first place; it something happened to him it would be her fault.

"Ok, please, tell me how to find Kouji." Sakura whispered and then she held the drop in her palm. It quickly started spinning and glowing until it stopped and its pointy edge directed them. It was like a useful and practical compass.

***

"She'll find me, even if she doesn't know I'm missing." Kouji assured Poisonmon from his spider web prison. Her reminded himself of a fly stocked in a spider's web, trying to fight for his life without success. "She has to." He nervously added in a whisper.

Poisonmon had used her spider webs to trap Kouji, and she had put extra effort on the web, making sure that it didn't brake easily.

"I really doubt it. I don't think she is going to try to find you." Poisonmon laughed cheerfully as she approached the hanging kid.

They were in some sort of cave hidden in the middle of the forest, where everything gave the aspect of being black or dark blue and with many tunnels on the walls. Poisonmon quickly made herself a place to sit at the vey back of the cave, where she could perfectly watch Kouji and she enjoyed of the feeling of superiority. It had been hard no killing that brat that was with Kouji, but a deal was a deal. Anyway, she had Kouji with her, and that was all that mattered. Poisonmon had even forgotten the pact she'd made with the lord of all the Digital World. All she cared about was Kouji.

"You better hurry, Little Nuisance!" Kouji muttered, careful of not talking very loudly. Poisonmon was very busy searching something, so she had her back turned on Kouji. It wasn't a lovely sight; that was for sure.

"Where's your D-Tector?" A sweet whisper came from behind Kouji.

He actually had to twist a bit his neck to get a glimpse of Sakura's body, accompanied by Poyomon on her shoulder.

"How did you find me?!" He asked, curiously more irritated than before; being seeing like that by Sakura wasn't really helping. At least he wasn't alone with Poisonmon.

"Thank Poyomon and the Star." She winked.

"Poyomon…" Kouji muttered to himself in anger. Poisonmon had definitely made clear he worked for her. "In my pocket. I can't reach it." Kouji admitted reluctantly.

"Yeah, I figured that you couldn't reach it." She said with sarcasm.

"Then, what are you waiting for! Get it out!" He exclaimed.

"What? I'm not going to search you until I find it!" She half-whispered, half-yelled at him. "Let me get you out of this… thing." She said as she inspected the web, trying to find a place where it would seem weak. "Wow, she really wants you to stay with her, doesn't she?" Sakura joked while she got the Star out and tried to cut the web with its pointy edge.

"I don't find it funny." Kouji muttered as he felt Sakura's warm hands against his ice cold hands and then he felt the point of whatever she was using to set him free. "Ow! Concentrate on what you're doing instead of fooling around." He grunted.

She ignored his comment and kept cutting the web that tied Kouji's right hand, so he could get his D-Tector out. Kouji started looking in his pockets until he founded it, just in time to feel his left hand free and land safely in the ground. Just in the same instant his feet touched the ground, Poisonmon fired one of her web threads, which easily attached to Kouji's D-Tector and took it from him, leaving his hand empty.

Sakura quickly founded herself facing that recently evolved Digimon, who was scarier than Webmon. She hadn't realized that she had stepped out from behind of the web that trapped Kouji and she was staring at that Digimon. Kouji's protective arm was suddenly in front of her, and his body took its place in no time. When Poisonmon spoke, Sakura could only see her through Kouji's shoulder, because even his head was blocking the view.

"You're bold for coming here, little brat. But he's not going anywhere near you!" She yelled with anger and jealousy, glaring something more than daggers at Sakura from over Kouji's shoulder.

"I…"

"Cut it out!" Kouji finally yelled, tired of remaining absinthe from a situation that definitely concerned him.

"No! Don't do it!" Poyomon cried from Sakura's shoulder and he waddled back down to the ground, walking towards Poisonmon.

"No, wait!" Sakura cried, but Kouji stopped her from moving by holding her forearm.

"What happened to you?" The little Poyomon cried with his black eyes shining because of the tears that were about to come. "I thought I could help them by bringing them to you, but you only tried to hurt my friends!"

Poisonmon laughed mischievously and, with one of her eight arms, she pushed Poyomon out of the way, making him fall to the ground and roll some meters away.

"Poyomon!" Sakura cried as she freed herself from Kouji and tried to reach Poyomon, who was on the floor besides Poisonmon.

Big mistake; she shouldn't have moved. Poisonmon used that advantage attack Sakura with her "Venom ----"powerful attack, consisting in throwing some deathly venom to her opponents, which has Poisonmon's favorite technique. Suddenly, seconds after the liquid touched Sakura, a body blocked it, receiving the attack itself. As Sakura's senses came back, she founded that the one who had taken the deathly liquid was no one else but Kouji. She could do nothing but to stare at his weak body, gasping for air.

"NO!" Poisonmon cried, but her scream was so squeaky that it hurt the ears of both Sakura and agonizing Kouji.

"Kouji…" Sakura began to blabber as she leaned to see him.

"Go." He weakly commanded, though he couldn't even understand himself.

"What? No…"

"Get out!" He repeated, trying to open his mouth bigger so she could understand him.

"No, what are you saying?" Sakura was panicking at the moment; Kouji was muttering something she couldn't understand!

All Kouji did was grunt before pushing slightly Sakura's shoulder; the moment he did, she fell backwards through one of the many tunnels that were on the walls of the cave, seeing a very injured Kouji disappear through the small open of the tunnel/hole.

She couldn't help screaming, even if she felt nothing. I was weird knowing that she was probably going to die and that she'd never see the light again but only screaming because of what she felt in her stomach. Probably it was because she trusted the drop would save her… or she hadn't felt the pain in her palm that always meant trouble; she held tight to her D-Tector, trying with all her might to not let it fall. Still, her mind was occupied by something else: Kouji. He had blocked the venom attack and he had been injured himself. Sakura wasn't sure of what that venom did, but she was beginning to lose hope in seeing Kouji again.

Then, she saw that, instead of solid rock there was water. She had salvation, even if she didn't know how deep it was. Honestly, it didn't look like an inoffensive puddle of water; actually, it didn't look like water at all. The color and consistence of the liquid reminded her of the material inside the Star; liquid silver. She breathed deeply before falling straight into the water… or whatever it was.

It wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either. It felt cool and nice being swimming in that lake, but she didn't want to relax; she couldn't. Not when she knew that Kouji could be death right then. She sprang out of the surface and swam until she was safe in the ground again.

"Dang it." She muttered, panting loudly and taking deep breaths.

She looked at herself and realized that she wasn't even wet, which was weird, considering that she had fallen into a huge lake of… something. Then she looked around. The little light that got inside was from the hole Kouji had pushed her through, and it reflected beautifully on the silver lake.

"No!" She heard Poisonmon yell desperately, but she couldn't get the whole thing; she only caught the echoes of the last words she kept on screaming. "WHY…? LIVE! CAN'T… DIE!"

"Kouji…" Sakura sobbed. If Poisonmon was yelling like that, Kouji was surely death. 

Her eyes started to fill with tears and she felt a single tear roll down to her cheek. She had sworn never to cry for a boy again… and she had met Kouji two days from then; why was she crying?! Why did she felt such a terrible sadness for someone she barely knew?! WHY?! More tears rolled down her cheeks and fell on the floor as she sobbed harder. She didn't even have the strength to get up; she just remained kneeling there, crying for Kouji. 

She could never see Kouji, her best friend, again! She couldn't have the chance to thank him for his jacket, which she was still wearing, properly; or apologize to him for getting him in such a mess! She had killed Kouji! It was all her fault!

As her sobs became something more than gasps mixed with crying, sniffs and a few muffled screams, Poisonmon kept begging, and her echoes encouraged Sakura's tears.

"I'm… sorry." She whispered again, with her voice still affected by the tears. She wasn't used to apologizing, and now she might never have the chance of saying it to the person that deserved it. "I'M SORRY!"

Right after she had yelled to all the caver her apology, way too late, a silver light came out from the lake, illuminating the tunnel through which Sakura had fallen. It had taken the form of a ball, but when the D-Tector started glowing and its light attracted the ball of silver light, Sakura could see that it was actually a statue of some type colored in various tones of silver and blue and surrounded by the same light she'd seen when Kouji evolved. The D-Tector quickly absorbed the statue and a weird symbol appeared on the screen.

"It is time." The same female's voice that had brought them to the Digital World spoke and Sakura could do nothing than stare at it before she was surrounded by Digital Codes of a silver color, accompanied by an electric-bluish tone. With that same electric blue color, the outline of the statue was traced in the now black screen of her D-Tector and, all of a sudden, everything became clear in Sakura's mind.

She reached out her hand and waited for the circle of Digital Codes to appear around it, then, with her other hand that held the D-Tector, she traced a small 'S' as she passed the Digital Codes through the D-Tector's scanner.

"Execute!" She yelled as her hands finished sliding the Digital Codes through the scanner. "Spirit Evolution!" Her right hand completed the 'S' and then she moved both her arms clockwise in a circle.

She saw how the Digital Codes surrounded her body and sort of fusion it with the statue she'd capture instants before. She saw and felt how the Digital Codes were forming an armor, so she stretched her arms automatically. It was a weird armor, but Sakura couldn't really see because it was only blue spots. Once she had the armor on, Sakura founded herself standing over a platform, repeating her name: Argentmon.

She got back to the tunnel, only this time, Argentmon was perfectly capable of flying, so gave herself some impulse from the rock Sakura had been using to avoid falling, and she flew back to where Kouji and Poisonmon were. Before she got to the surface, she was able to hear some voices; one was Poisonmon, but the other one wasn't Kouji… it was Poyomon? She could only catch glimpses of what they were saying.

"YOU!" Poisonmon cried again; she was over Kouji's, who barely moved. "All this is your fault!"

"I suppose you didn't count on me finding my Spirit in your own cave!" Argentmon exclaimed, not wanting to admit that Poisonmon was right.

"You little…" Poisonmon didn't finish her phrase because she decided to fire her venom again… and she had to choose between throwing venom or begin a monologue.

At the evident attack from Poisonmon, Argentmon could think of nothing but of covering herself with a shield. As if the knowledge had been on her head all along, the words for her defensive block came to her mouth.

"Gin Shield!" She exclaimed. Her wings moved forward, changing from their usual blue color to silver and dissolving the venom quickly before it touched Argentmon. "Now it's my turn." She smirked. "Silver rain!"

Argentmon unfolded her wings and aimed at Poisonmon. Her Silver Rain consisted on firing daggers that formed in her wings to her opponent. Explained and done, Poisonmon's body became marked with the wounds that the daggers had made. Poisonmon cry again. Just then, Poisonmon's figure became black and she was surrounded by a circle of moving Digital Codes. Argentmon was about to get her D-Tector out when she founded herself surrounded by the same type of codes. The next thing she knew was that she had turned back into Sakura. Poisonmon's codes returned to her body and she came back with her horrible and frightening laugh. Sakura felt suddenly very tired and she was fighting against the shaking of her legs.

Poisonmon opened her mouth again, probably wanting to throw venom at her again.

"Sakura…" A weak Kouji said, as he tumbled from where he was lying and ended up in front of Sakura, willing to protect her again.

Poisonmon quickly changed the curse of her venom attack so it hit the ceiling instead of the kids. After having to using the strength that he had left, Kouji fell down to the ground; luckily, Sakura caught him before his knees touched the hard ground, but she was also weak. The cave started shaking, thanks to Poisonmon, who quickly disappeared through one of the many tunnels, leaving Sakura, Kouji, and Poyomon inside of a cave about to collapse.

"Poyomon, let's get out of here!" She yelled and Poyomon, who had remained on the ground the whole time, managed to stand up and waddled up to where Sakura and Kouji were. Sakura quickly got Kouji's D-Tector and managed to get out of the cave.

Kouji could hardly walk, so Sakura had to put his arm around her neck and carry him out of the cave just in time. The entrance of the cave was sealed with the many rocks that fell from the ceiling of the cave… all because Poisonmon didn't want to hit Kouji again. And she had left him there without checking if he was all right. She gently set Kouji on the ground and stared at him. He was shaking uncontrollably, pounding and grunting. Sakura stretched her shaking hand and touched his forehead, only to find that he was literally burning.

"Kouji…" She sobbed, not knowing what to do to cure him.

"Sakura…" He started muttering. His voice was weak and it was affected by shivers. "Sakura…"

"Kouji? I'm… here." She stared at Poyomon, but got no answer of what to do.

"Help me!" He pleaded. "Take it off me! Too… much… dark…" He kept on mumbling.

"He's burning with fever! There has to be water somewhere near!" She pleaded, but Poyomon kept looking at Kouji with a mortified expression and denied with his head.

"Satomi… mother… get out!" Kouji kept muttering, taking his hands to his ears. "Sakura, make it go!"

It was all her fault. She knew it! Kouji was injured because of her! She had to make that horrible plan; she had to be so stupid to let Kouji block the attack instead of moving! It was her fault and now she couldn't do anything to make him better.

"Sakura… it's too… much… too… dark." Kouji kept on going. "Why?! Make it go!"

With his words, Sakura had a hunch. She got out her Star and held it tight in her hands. _Please, make Kouji better, _she pleaded and then she placed the star on Kouji's shirt. The same sliver light illuminated the forest and covered Kouji; by the time the Star had stopped glowing, Kouji was rubbing the back part of his head.

"What happened?" He asked, taking the drop on his hand and giving it back to Sakura. "Have you been crying?" He asked suspiciously.

She stared at him, with her red eyes wide opened. He had lost his mind! He kept staring at her.

"What… happened to Poisonmon? Where are we?"

"You don't remember anything?" She asked, still filled with surprise.

"I remember… you fell through a tunnel." He doubted. Sakura couldn't help but to start laughing. They had been through so much and he nearly dies… and he just remembered she fell through a tunnel?!

"You were hit by her venom, and then you pushed me through that tunnel, and… I thought you were death! And I founded my Spirit!" She exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, but all of this was my fault. I didn't know that Webmon had been taking by evil." Poyomon said. "I want to apologize by doing some favor to you." He lowered his head.

Kouji and Sakura shared a confused look.

***

"Well, here we go, miss." The old blacksmith Digimon said, handing Sakura back her silver drop with a pretty chain attached to it.

Poyomon's favor consisted in taking them to a blacksmith to get a chain for the drop and avoid losing it. Sakura inspected the necklace; it was definitely a beautiful work.

"Let me help you." Kouji muttered and grabbed the necklace, moving behind Sakura.

"Oh." She blushed. "Thank you." She whispered as she held her hair out of the back of her neck so Kouji could tie the necklace. When he finished, he pulled her hair back to its place.

"It's pretty." He commented and then he did nothing but turning around to cover his blush. "So, I said 30 thoughts that crossed my mind in total, not counting when I had fever." Kouji showed off after a while.

"That means you won?!" Sakura exclaimed and looked at a smirking Kouji. "Perfect!" She gave him a warm smile.

"What…?"

"Look!" Poyomon shouted, staring at the sky.

The deep clouds that gave the impression of darkening the skies started to move and disappeared, and, after a while, Kouji and Sakura where able to feel the warm and cozy sun from the afternoon. Sakura took Kouji's jacket off and gave it to him.

"T-thank you, Kouji." She whispered and blushed.

"Huh? Oh, yeah." He blabbered and put on his jacket again smiling to himself. He'd missed it.

"Hey, kids." The blacksmith Digimon said again, interrupting whatever it was that they were thinking. "The Trailmons are going to work again, thanks to the clear sky."

"That means we have to go now." Kouji urged, pulling gently Sakura's arm.

"Poyomon, I want to thank you for all you did." She said, kneeling to rub Poyomon's head. "You proved you are very brave." Poyomon simply stared at her with his black eyes.

"Hey, pal… thanks." Kouji said, earning a smile from Sakura and a nice look from Poyomon. "Well, come on."

The waved back before running to where the old Digimon had told them they could catch a Trailmon. They had to wait a little, but the Trailmon finally showed, quite tired. They got in and relaxed with the sound of the Trailmon running through the rails. Kouji got his D-Tector out and started to inspection it. He turned it back and forth around his hands; he shook it a bit, and finally he looked at it from different perspective. Meanwhile, Sakura was having existential problems on how to say what she wanted.

"Kouji, there's something I want to say." Sakura began; she knew she was tired and needed to sleep, but she really needed to say that. How could she say it without hurting her stupid pride? She had all ready done it… _well, I was alone in a cave and I thought Kouji was death, but still! _

"What would that be?" Kouji asked as he stopped playing with his D-Tector and faced her. It was nice not having Poyomon around to butt around their conversations, but he was still going to miss him… and he regretted judging him so severely.

"I-I know all this happened because of me and…" She was blabbering at that point, and his stare wasn't helping much. "What I'm trying to say is… I would like you to know that… All this is…" Why was it so hard?!?

"Are you… trying to apologize?" Kouji asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes! Apologize, that's it!" Sakura exclaimed. She had to thank Kouji again for completing the hard part.

"I thought you hated to apologize."

"I do. But… I know you got kidnapped because of me, and… I just want you to know that… I… well…" She took a deep breath. "I'm… s-sorry!" She let out quickly as she closed her eyes.

"Umm… apology accepted." He smiled after a while; it had been hard to get the 'I'm sorry' part.

Then, another silent invaded them, a silence that Sakura used to try to fall asleep until Kouji remembered he had actually won the game. He couldn't believe that he had expressed more thoughts than her, but still, he knew that had been the purpose of the game all along; to make him trust in Sakura. She wasn't thinking of winning at any time. He owed her his life.

"We haven't decided my price yet." He suddenly said, looking at Sakura with his deep eyes again. She stood up from her seat with a great effort and sat beside him, giving him one of her famous closed-eyed smiles.

"What do you want?" She asked tiredly.

"I had thought of an apology at first, but since you all ready gave me one…" He was suddenly cut off.

Sakura, very quickly and without thinking in her deliberate actions, reached up to his face and gave him a little, quick kiss on the cheek, obviously blushing after doing it and thinking severely of jumping out of the train for. She realized that she was even more and more attracted by something about Kouji that was different.

She liked him… _as a friend! _She hurried up to complete in her mind. She rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, wanting to sleep more than anything else in the world. Kouji was right; there was no other word for describing her Evolution but cool… and tiring maybe.

"Good night Kouji." She managed to mumble before the weight of her eyelids was suddenly too much and she was forced to close her eyes.

"G-Good night, Little Nuisance." Kouji said.

He had his hand still on his cheek, where Sakura had planted her little kiss. She had instantly fallen asleep on his shoulder. Of course she was tired; he had been also tired when he founded his Spirit. Now, what was the next thing they would face?

He looked at her, sleeping soundly in his shoulder with his jacket on. She looked weird… different. Maybe he was seeing her differently too. That didn't matter much, though. They were friends and they could get to the bottom of the mystery of the Silver Star together. He smiled, having troubles imagining her as a Digimon. As he stared out of the window, he could have sworn he saw Takuya and the others standing there, but that couldn't be… could it?


	4. Chapter 4: Blooming Land

**~Blooming Land~**

In the dark sky of the Digital World, two or three moons of different matching colors could be seen; they gave a beautiful light. Unfortunately for Sakura and Kouji, they were inside the Trailmon, so they couldn't enjoy of the spectacle the night was offering. Besides, Sakura was still asleep. They had been traveling in that Trailmon for the whole night, but Sakura had not been awake since they left the station where they had left Poyomon. Where the Silver Star had been made into a necklace and where, a few moments before sleeping, Sakura had given Kouji a kiss on the cheek as a price for winning her stupid little game.

The red Trailmon yawned as he slowed down considerably. Inside him, wandering what had happened, Kouji looked outside the windows, trying to focus something that was not blur or dark, but he was unable. A quick shiver ran from his arm through all his body and he took just a second to look down to his shoulder to realize that it was Sakura who was trembling. She had his jacket on and she still was cold. Just as he debated whether or not to hug her, the Trailmon stopped yawning and speeded up again, causing Kouji to waggle slightly and Sakura to slide from his shoulder to his lap. Right then, his D-Tector's screen started glowing again, with that characteristic eye-like symbol Kouji was starting to get familiar with.

"You must go to the forest terminal," the female's voice announced again.

"The forest… terminal," Kouji repeated, thinking. He made a pause in each of the word, as if trying to find some sort of secret meaning in each one of them.

"Make her shut up!" Sakura grunted half-asleep. Kouji looked at her, only to see her rolling over her side to be more comfortable.

"The forest terminal, huh?" he repeated, "sure; why not?" He sighed as he looked towards the dark panorama the window had to offer and he got lost in it.

The rest of the trip in Trailmon was awful. Kouji had to fight with all of his strength to stay awake, and he had to ignore the Trailmon's scolds once in a while. The sweetest and calmest part was when Sakura muttered things that he couldn't understand, but he kept talking to her just to see what she said. The cruel part was when the Trailmon had his rage attacks and he accelerated or stopped without any type of warning, so Kouji had to get a good hold of Sakura's body to keep her from falling due to these sudden changes in the train's speed.

After a while of going up and down of hills, circling mountains and lakes, running through stone bridges and God-knows-what-else, the Trailmon, Kouji, and Sleeping Sakura finally made to a safe spot to stop. I could not be called a station, but the Trailmon refused to go any further and the place seemed nice and secure. After yawning a couple of more times and making sure that nobody was there, the Trailmon opened his many doors, only to let down two passengers.

On the inside of the Trailmon, the lights were on again, and everything was bright and shiny. The green, soft seats had gained color again, the same as the gold-colored wall. Kouji looked down at his lap, where Sakura was sleeping soundly. He waited one second, two, and three…

"Turn off the light!" She muttered and grunted as she covered her eyes with the sleeves of Kouji's jacket, which she was still wearing.

"We need to get off the Trailmon, Little Nuisance", Kouji said, quite insensible.

"It's comfy… here," Sakura tried to say between yawns, but it barely sounded comprehensible.

"Whatever," Kouji pushed the upper part of her body up with his knee quite easily.

Before she could even think of falling back into the train's seats, he grabbed her by the shoulders and stood her up, driving her literally asleep through the Trailmon's corridors. Sakura's head was falling off her neck, and her eyes were closed, so she couldn't see what she was doing, but she didn't care. She trusted that Kouji wouldn't push her off the Trailmon or something similar; and he didn't.

Little by little, the brightness of the lights of the interior of the Trailmon that Sakura could see through her eyelids was diminished until they became nothing. Instead, they were replaced by Kouji's voice and strong grip.

"The stairs are right here," Kouji said. His tone was serious, as if that of concern mixed with obvious frustration. "Try not to fall… or trip," he added after realizing that it was Sakura who he was dealing with.

After they got out of the Trailmon safely and without accidents, he directed Sakura towards a bench nearby and sat her carefully; that was useless, since the weight of her body simply won over and made Sakura fall to her side, leaving no spot for Kouji to sit. Having nothing else to do, Kouji walked a few feet from the bench.

"Just call me the naptime express," The huge Trailmon said between yawns. Kouji gave him a questioning look that didn't last very long. Just as the Trailmon finished yawning, Kouji felt that same impulse of stretching; unconsciously, he founded himself yawning widely, enjoying of the feeling yawning produced. A little embarrassed, he stretched his arms and returned to the bench were Sakura was deeply sleeping.

He contemplated her for a while, admiring the way her hair fell over her face. She looked… somehow cute. She rolled to the other side, tired of being in the same position, Kouji guessed. Seeing her and the Trailmon rest silently made him even more tired and he wished Sakura would have left him a little space to sit in the bench.

Having no other choice, he lifted gently her head and sat in the small space there was left; then, he rested her head on his lap again. She looked so small and cute… immediately after these thoughts he shook gently his head but the small smile that had formed in his lips remained. He couldn't be thinking that way! It was insane!

"I better get some snooze too," He changed the subject quickly and muttered to himself. "This place is really quiet; it gives me some time to think without being bothered by nuisances," he said as he glanced at Sakura, who was still submerged in her dreams. _Think about what exactly? _He wondered as he realized that his mind was surely not going to focus on finding the Forest Terminal.

***

_Now, that's a delicious smell! I wonder… where does it come from? That reminds me, I haven't eaten a thing in a couple of days. How am I supposed to stay strong and find my Spirit without food in my stomach?! Oh, wait a second! I've all ready found my Spirit, just like Kouji! Now all we have to do… what is it that we have to do? _

Sakura's eyes moved quickly underneath her eyelids. She waited a few seconds to see if something happened… perhaps something magical that would get that delicious smell near her mouth, but nothing occurred. Her nose just kept enjoying that smell, making her mouth wish that she was having breakfast right then. Her eyes opened, revealing a lovely blue sky with a couple of clouds in it. She guessed it was still early in the morning, because the sun wasn't high enough in the sky. She pushed herself up with one of her hands and her eyes widened at the first thing she saw: Kouji.

At that point, she knew that she'd been resting her head on his lap and she couldn't help feeling guilty. Obviously Kouji had to be tired of having the weight of her head on his lap! Suddenly, something else captured her attention. It was a noise. A bear or angry animal, perhaps? _Grrrrr_ again. It was the vibrations in her stomach that made her realize that she was so hungry and that it was her who was making those noises. She gasped in horror as both her hands flew to her stomach and her gaze flew all the way to Kouji's face, just to make sure that he was asleep and that he hadn't heard her stomach roar. He made no move, so she relaxed a bit.

Pathetic as it would sound, she needed to find food, and she needed Kouji to be awake and lead the way, since her sense of orientation really sucked. She stared at Kouji, who was really sleeping soundly. Was it all right to wake him up? He had been fighting for both of them and he nearly died the day before. He had the right to sleep and rest for a while. _Maybe… he won't even wake up. If he doesn't then I won't bother hi,_ she thought. Slowly, she waved her hand across Kouji's face, but there was no reaction.

"Kouji… are you awake?" She whispered. Obviously he wasn't awake! What kind of stupid question was that?! "Oh well, it seems not," she sighed.

She stood up and placed her hands on her waist, looking at the forest ahead of her. If she remembered the way the trees looked she'd have a better chance of not getting lost. She took a deep breath and started walking. She had to admit that the forest was lovely. Everything smelled like fresh trees and she could hear the birds singing a happy song.

"Well, at least this doesn't look too bad," she muttered to herself.

"Where exactly do you think you're going?" Kouji's voice spoke from behind. Sakura turned around only to see her traveling partner sitting comfortably in the bench, with his legs crossed and his arms resting in the bench back.

"Kouji… I thought you were asleep."

"And you were going to take a walk in the forest alone with that hideous sense of orientation you have?"

"I… yes," she admitted. "I'm hungry," she said as she lowered her gaze and blushed. Kouji stood up and stretched his neck; then, he walk up to where Sakura was.

"Well, come on. Unless you're planning to find food by simply standing there," he said with his characteristic not-caring tone. Sakura shook her head and resumed her walking with Kouji by her side.

"Oh, by the way, I don't think I need this anymore," Sakura said, returning Kouji his jacket. "Thank you," She whispered.

"It's still cold," Kouji muttered as he stared at the jacket Sakura held in front of him.

"I'll be fine, Kouji," She gave him a closed-eye smile. Kouji simply took the jacket and put it on again.

Right then, another voice caught their attention.

"So this is the Forest Terminal, right?"

"No, it says Breezy Village…"

Sakura recognized the voices. It was J.P. and the other girl they had seen with Takuya; she also saw Bokomon and Neemon, the two other Digimon that went with them. Kouji smirked and looked at them.

"Welcome, tourists," he announced their presence quite subtly. They all gasped and turned around only to see Sakura and Kouji standing besides the bench. "So this isn't it?" He added. His smirk could be guessed in the way his tone sounded.

"No, apparently not," Bokomon said, kind of in a hostile way. The girl simply giggled and took one step closer to Kouji and Sakura.

"Hey Sakura, hey Kouji! What's up?" She asked with an enthusiastic tone. Kouji ignored her and took Sakura's hand, continuing their walk without saying another word. The girl stared at them. "Uh, where are you going?"

"Well…" Sakura began, but Kouji quickly interrupted her.

"Where we go is our own business; thanks for asking," he said in a very hostile tone as he pulled Sakura's hand.

"Oh, Kouji," Sakura sighed, knowing that he was helpless.

"Why do you have to be so antisocial?!" The girl kept on screaming as the both walked away.

"He reminds me of white chocolate," J.P. commented. Sakura couldn't help to giggle.

"Why is that?!" She turned around and yelled as Kouji forced her to keep on walking.

"He might look good but he has no taste!" J.P. replied laughing. Sakura giggled too and then she waved goodbye.

"Don't encourage him and keep walking," Kouji scolded her severely as he kept on pulling her hand until they were far from the girl and J.P.

***

"I don't understand why you didn't wake me up," Kouji kept wandering. "You are all ready a Little Nuisance, it's not like I wouldn't have expected you to keep on bothering me."

"Well, you almost die yesterday," Sakura shrugged. "I suppose that I wanted you to rest a little bit more." They remained silent until Sakura reflected on something Kouji had said. "And don't call me 'nuisance'," she added playfully.

"One would have thought you'd get used to that nickname by now," Kouji sighed, a little annoyed.

"Well…" She began, but she was cut off by a little Digimon standing right in front of them. The small creature seemed like a flower. Its head was round and red with purple, and her light green legs were those of a flower.

"Oh, visitors!" She exclaimed and started jumping. "It's so nice to have someone down on Breezy Village!"

"Breezy Village?" Sakura asked, looking at Kouji; he shrugged.

"Yes! That's our village. It's known for its famous breeze… it's nothing like you've ever felt before… but please you must stay for lunch!" The little plant-like Digimon cheered.

"I don't think…" Kouji began.

"LUNCH!" Sakura cried, relieved to have something to eat. "We'd love to stay for lunch… if that's all right."

"Absolutely! We have the most delicious fruit in the whole Digital World!"

"Oh, that would be nice! I'm starving!" Sakura looked at Kouji, who had a reluctant expression in his face. "Oh, please, Kouji! We haven't eaten in days, you must be starving too! Please, can we stay?" She asked with her huge puppy eyes. He tried to resist the look, but he was unable.

"Fine, but just for a little while," he sighed and let Sakura drag him towards the village.

***

"We should go back now," Kouji suggested after he had eaten two of the fruits the Floramon gave them. They were golden pears that, according to the Floramon, could be easily turned into soup. Unfortunately, it was a bit early to be eating soup.

"Yeah, I suppose the Trailmon would not be happy to wait for us," Sakura agreed.

As they walked out of the Floramon's house, a gentle breeze touched Sakura's skin.

"So this is the famous breeze?" She asked, outstretching her arms so she could enjoy of the wind that blew. Her hair flew in all directions with the breeze. Floramon nodded.

"It comes thanks to that huge tree over there. Everyone came down here to enjoy of the breeze," she explained.

"I can see why," Kouji whispered, also closing his eyes and enjoying of the breeze in his face. "We really need to go."

Sakura nodded and they both went walking down the same path they had come waving good-bye. The forest hadn't changed a lot, even if the sun was shining more. The same green and yellowish tones covered the whole scene and the shade the trees provided was really refreshing.

"Um, Kouji…" Sakura doubted as she looked around. He faced her and also stopped, waiting for her to continue. "What if there are no other Trailmons at the station. After all, I wouldn't call that a real station."

"And that is why we are not going back to the station," he stated the obvious and kept on walking with his superior air.

"We are not?" Sakura caught up with him and stared at his untroubled face.

"No, we are going to follow the railroads through the woods, just like we have been doing," he looked down and Sakura followed the direction of his eyes. She had been stepping on the railroads since they started walking.

"Oh," was all that she managed to say.

Right after that, a low buzzing reached their ears. It was more a hunch that told Sakura to reach for her D-Tector. The screen was giving off that bright, white light again. Sakura recognized it right away.

"Kouji," she whispered.

"Is that a Spirit?" He wondered out loud. Their questioning session was interrupted by three voices coming out from the trees.

Sakura started walking towards the voices, but Kouji swiftly caught her hand and pulled her behind a tree.

"Hey, what are you…?" Sakura protested, but Kouji simply glared at her as he covered her mouth his hand.

"Ah, those strangers are in the village!" One voice cried. Sakura looked at Kouji; he slowly took back his hand and grabbed her hand, running towards a nearby tree. They both peeked from behind the tree and kept listening to the voices.

"That's trouble! They're human children!" A second voice cried. Sakura gasped and then covered her own mouth, knowing that Kouji was about to do it for her.

"They're talking about J.P. and that girl," she whispered. Kouji did nothing but listen to the voices.

"Do you think those flowers called them in to help?!" A third individual asked with more than anger in his voice.

"Come on," Kouji said as he grabbed Sakura's hand again and ran through some bushes, finally leaning into another tree closer to the creatures who were talking.

"Yeah, nobody can stop the Mushroomon Brothers!" The first voice replied.

"Mushroomon Brothers?" Sakura asked in a whisper.

"Shush!" Kouji motioned her, trying to catch the next part of the conversation. Unfortunately, the Digimon simply busted out in laughs and didn't say another word about their plan. "Well, let's carry on," Kouji said after a while of waiting and started walking back towards the railroads, carful to see where he stepped.

"What do you mean? You are not going to help them?" Sakura stood there, looking at Kouji's moving figure.

"Not my problem."

"And what about the Floramon? You're going to leave them as well after all they did for us?" Sakura yelled at him.

"Why do you have to always butt into people's problems?" Kouji turned around to face her.

"We should help them! They did something nice for us and you don't even care!" She made a pause to see if there was a change in Kouji's serious eyes, but nothing happened. "Well, if you don't move its fine, but I am going back to the Village to see what I can do," and with that said, she ran back to where she and Kouji came from.

"You're...!" Kouji began shouting, but Sakura had all ready disappeared through the trees. "…so dead," he concluded, still staring at the place where Sakura had been a few minutes ago. He could do nothing but frown and grunt. "Grate."

***

"There, if we keep working this place will look fantastic!" Zoe finished planting a purple little flower and stood up. The sun was high and the dry colors of the village weren't helping much, but they had done a great job replanting the flowers and making Breezy Village a bit more colorful. "Huh?"

"I can't believe this stupid thing doesn't get that I want to be away from him sometimes!" That same girl they had seen with Kouji was screaming at a necklace, which she was holding in her hand. The pendant was a silver drop, but it was glowing in a weird way and its pointy edge was pointing towards the road she'd taken.

"Sakura!" J.P. cheered and stood up. The girl waved at them and approached J.P., Zoe, and the Floramon.

"Oh, welcome!" the Floramon cheered up and surrounded her. "It's so nice to see you came back this soon! We'd love to prepare you and your friend soup!" They cried.

"Oh, no… it's just me this time," Sakura said, lowering a bit her gaze but she kept a sad smile in her mouth.

"You come alone? What happened to that antisocial jerk?" J.P. asked playfully.

"I came to see if you guys were all right. Kouji and I…" But some blinding yellowish light came through the forest, along with a mushroom-like artifact; Sakura guessed it was a bomb used by the Mushroomon Brothers. She couldn't help to scream and cover her eyes, the same as the Floramon, Zoe, and J.P. The force of the bomb's impact was so strong that Sakura, J.P. and some Floramon close to the bomb were thrown a few feet behind. As she was lying in the ground, Sakura tightened her hand around her necklace, careful not to lose her only obvious bound to Kouji.

***

Somewhere in the forest, a preoccupied Kouji saw the light. Its brightness was so intense that it was almost as he was in the place of the explosion. He heard everyone at Breezy Village scream in horror, but only one thing crossed his mind: Sakura. If something happened to her it would be his fault for letting her go on her own. A gasp escaped from his mouth as he contemplated the light and the damage it might cost on the Village. After the huge explosion he had witnessed, the sky was filled with dark smoke, letting Kouji know that things weren't Ok.

***

The enormous tree that was the source of the lovely breeze that gave the village its name was partially destroyed by the bombs. Sakura found herself besides Zoe and some Floramon, contemplating the gray, thick, smoke that came after the bombs were thrown; it was impossible not to cough with such smoke. Sakura used all her strength to stand up in her feet, but Zoe was all ready looking the faces of the three Digimon called the "Mushroomon Brothers".

The two girls looked at the three Mushroomon standing in the branches of a nearby tree with smirks on their faces.

"Oh, not again!" The Floramon cried desperately as the Mushroomon laughed evilly.

"We thought you understood!" The first one said.

"Planting trees and flowers is a complete waste of time!" The other ones completed.

"Please don't wreck all our plants!" A Floramon cried behind Sakura, but they all knew begging wasn't going to be useful. Those Mushroomon were decided to destroy the whole village.

With a quick jump, the three Mushroomon threw three other bombs. Sakura gasped and covered her eyes, expecting the bombs to explode like the one before, but they didn't. Instead, they released a yellow powder that spread all over the area. Zoe and Sakura stared at the particles, but nothing happened; however, the Floramon started coughing and then busted out in laughter.

"What's so funny? You're in trouble," Zoe said, looking around and then staring at Sakura.

"What…?" Sakura stared at the laughing Floramon and then at the Mushroomon. "What have you done to them?!" She demanded. The Mushroomon landed right in front of the laughing creatures and laughed.

"If you were a Floramon you'd be laughing too!" The Mushroomon that seemed to be the leader said.

"They get all too tired from laughing that they can barely move," one of his brothers spoke.

"Why are you doing this?" Sakura asked.

"What have we ever done to you?!" A Floramon asked between laughs. Sakura knew that she'd be very sad if it wasn't for that magic powder, but right now, the Floramon didn't sound too serious. "We used to greet our visitor at the station together, remember?"

"She's right!" Another Floramon said, laughing hard. The other Floramon joined in a laughing chorus, agreeing with their mates.

"You Floramon were always more popular than us!" The Mushroomon leader yelled. He was getting pissed off. "No matter how hard we tried to please the tourists, they always like you flower girls better!"

"That's not true!" A Floramon cried. "They like you guys too!"

"And your Mushroom _mousse_ was so popular between tourists!" A second Floramon said, but she was unable to keep on giving arguments because she started laughing, encouraging the other Floramon to keep on laughing. She took a deep breath and finished. "They liked it better than our soup!"

That was it; the Mushroomon leader flew up in the air and tossed a bomb. Zoe, Sakura and the Floramon were safe from the impact, but J.P. had to throw himself out of the bomb's way to avoid being hit. However, the bomb did stroke a house behind him and narrowed it down to ashes with a deafening noise.

"J.P., are you Ok?" Sakura yelled as she helped him up. Now, everyone was contemplating what had been a house. Bokomon and Neemon came out running from the building and coughing because of the smoke.

"Yeah. Man, they're toasting this place like an English muffin!" J.P. cried and faced the Mushroomon trio.

"It's over!" The leader announce with his superior, husky voice.

"We're gonna finish with this village and the flowers once and for all!"

As the Mushroomon gave a monologue about their plans for the village Sakura kept staring at them. She remembered Poisonmon and the code that surrounded her when she was being defeated. What if the Mushroomon were also under the spell of Cherubimon? What if they weren't bad at all? The sound of a slam brought her back to reality. She saw Zoe and the Mushroomon leader with his red cheek and a hand upon it. _Oh, no! I hope he doesn't get to angry or else…_

"Hey now, that's my brother! Why did you slap him?!" A Mushroomon cried as his brother took refugee with the third Mushroomon.

"You need to learn how to get along!" Zoe yelled. Sakura stared at her.

_Oh, man! That argument is not going to convince them. Nothing could go worse right now, _Sakura though as her hand flew to her pocket and felt her D-Tector. She felt safe holding the device until she remembered that her Spirit didn't last very long. _Well, I haven't had any more evolutions since then, maybe it works out fine; _she thought and stood besides Zoe.

"Just because you feel like you're getting the end of the stick it doesn't give you the right to go around destroying things!" Zoe kept on screaming and the Mushroomon. They were astonished, so Sakura had a hope that the nice talk might work.

"You should learn to solve things peacefully… without violence. Maybe the Floramon didn't see things the way you do," Sakura explained calmly but serious enough to be taken in account. Then, J.P. had to screw it up. He ran past Sakura and stood besides Zoe.

"Yeah, listen, you can't go around with that huge purple head of yours! That's just ugly!" He proudly said and looked at the girls. "Right, Zoe?"

"Now you've just insulted them," Sakura said quite insensitive. She took a while to realize that she sounded like Kouji!

"That's totally wrong!" Zoe said as she took a glance at the Mushroomon trio.

"You shouldn't have said that!" The leader said. All of the faces of the Mushroomon were red in anger and the strategy that could have worked was lost forever.

"If I were you, I'd run," Sakura whispered to J.P.

In no time, the poor fellow was running for his life, persecuted by the trio of Mushroomon, who were tossing at him all the bombs they could find. As J.P. kept zigzagging across the ground, he got his D-Tector out and started yelling for the Spirit, but to no avail. Just then, one of the bombs hit a tree in front of J.P., cutting his way out and making him triple and fall, remaining at the mercy of the bombs.

"J.P!" Zoe yelled as her eyes showed her fear for J.P.'s life.

"All right, I can't keep waiting much longer," Sakura muttered and got her D-Tector out, but before she could do anything with it, a small statue came out from the tree through one of the many wholes the bomb had made. "That's the Spirit."

J.P. smiled widely and stood up, holding tightly his D-Tector. The small pink ball of light went directly towards him and everyone stared in awe.

"That my Spirit!" J.P. yelled happily. "Spirit Evolution!" However nothing happened. Instead, Sakura caught the light coming out of Zoe's pocket.

"Hey, Zoe, your D-Tector is shining!" She pointed Zoe's pocket.

"Huh?" Zoe took her D-Tector out and the pink light passed J.P. and headed towards Zoe's D-Tector. She stared bewildered at the device, and the Mushroomon Brothers started moving to make their attack.

"All right, we can't waist anymore time, can we?" Sakura got a good hold at her D-Tector and pressed the side button. Zoe nodded as the voice announced the typical 'it is time'.

Sakura reached out her hand and waited for the circle of Digital Codes to appear around it, then, she traced the 'S' as she passed the Digital Codes through the D-Tector's scanner.

"Execute!" The two girls yelled at unison as their hands finished sliding the Digital Codes through the scanner. "Spirit Evolution!"

Sakura's right hand completed the 'S' and then she moved both her arms clockwise in a circle. She saw how the Digital Codes surrounded her body and sort of fusion it with the statue she'd capture instants before. She saw and felt how the Digital Codes formed her armor again and she finished up her evolution.

"Argentmon!"

"Kazemon!" Zoe yelled, now transformed in Kazemon, the wind Spirit.

"Zoe evolved instead of me, and Sakura has a Spirit too!" J.P cried, contemplating the two winged figures in the air. Sakura also looked at the people staring at Zoe. It was Kazemon's moment to shine, she couldn't interfere with that; she would have wanted such an audience when she evolved.

"Can you handle them?" Argentmon asked, winking. Kazemon caught that right away.

"I'll be fine, thank you!" She smiled and charged at the Mushroomon Brothers. "Evil creatures, be purified by the wind!"

"Nice try, butterfly!" The laughed as they jumped to be at Kazemon's level. Followed act, they threw three of their bombs at her.

"Hurricane Wave!" Kazemon simply smiled and showed her hands. From her fingertips long, pink tornados started to emerge, and with a simple wave of her hands, Kazemon sent the three bombs to the ground, making them crash with the soil and blow off. The Brothers looked angrily at her.

"Ah, you…!" The trio coordinated again to threw another three bombs at her, but Kazemon performed her Tempest Twist and send the bombs flying, as well as kicking the faces of the Brothers.

"Way to go!" Argentmon cheered. The whole public down at the Village also starred in awe at Kazemon's attacks.

"Look what she can do with those vegetables!" Bokomon exclaimed.

"And that could've been me!" J.P. joined the exclamations.

"We're not through yet!" The Mushroomon guys shouted and fusion into a fierce tree, taller than Kazemon and Argentmon together.

"What is that?!" Argentmon gasped in horror.

"That's Woodmon," Bokomon explained. "His bark is like armor and his attack is…" But he couldn't finish because Kazemon was all ready charging at the Digimon with all her strength. She performed other two attacks but nothing happened to the tree.

Kazemon backed away from Woodmon, waiting for another opportunity, but it was too late. Woodmon raised its arm fierce fully and hit Kazemon right in the stomach, causing her to fall down to the ground and turn back into Zoe.

"Zoe!" Argentmon and J.P. screamed, but Woodmon prepared to give the final stroke at Zoe.

"Hey! Why don't you look back here?" Argentmon shouted as she charged at the tree, giving J.P. some time to help Zoe up.

"Another fight with a girl?" Woodmon laughed. Argentmon thought of replying, but she restrained herself and focused in her attack.

"Silver Rain!" She yelled and the thin daggers all went directly to a same spot in Woodmon's face. The daggers Argentmon had fired were destined to hit right between the eyes, so a huge black whole formed in Woodmon's forehead. Argentmon expected Woodmon to plum to the ground, but he didn't; instead, he started laughing.

"I have to recognize that the attack seemed to have a good effect; unfortunately it wasn't enough!" He swung one of his branches towards Argentmon, who lodged it easily.

"That's all you've…?" She retorted, but she stopped when the familiar Digital Codes appeared around her body. _Oh, no again! Not now, please! _She pleaded, but the armor slowly began to disappear. Woodmon used that chance to strike again, hitting Sakura and sending her to the floor. Woodmon started laughing at his success.

Sakura was suddenly too weak to move, or to even try to think of a way of lodging the strike. Her strength abandoned her and the Silver Star she had been holding in her hand all along rolled out of her opened hand and right into the floor. Sakura contemplated it and stared at the beautiful light that it gave off. The point of the drop was still pointing to the place she had left Kouji. Suddenly, the force that suspended the drop in the air went away, along with the light, and the usual gray color of the drop came back; the small drop stopped pointing and fell heavily in the ground. Sakura looked up only to see the huge branch coming towards her and all she could think of was grabbing tightly the drop and closing her eyes.

"Hey, cut it out!" Kouji's angry voice suddenly sounded too close to be a product of Sakura's imagination. She opened her eyes abruptly and search for Kouji; she spotted him running towards her from some bushes.

"You can't do that to my friends!" J.P. cried and tried to hit Woodmon with a shovel, but the bark was so resistant it broke the shovel and Woodmon sent him flying besides Zoe with his branch attack.

"J.P.!"

"Time to finish up!" Woodmon announced and prepared to hit Sakura on the floor.

She stared at the branch that came over to kill her. The hit she had received minutes earlier had hurt a lot, but it couldn't be compared to the hit Zoe received, or the one she was about to receive. She tried to order her legs to move, but she was unable; something was stopping her from moving. Woodmon's laugh grew louder and Sakura felt unable to see her own death coming. Suddenly, something pulled her arm, making the branch miss Sakura by inches. She moved her eyes only to find Kouji's hand around her thin arm.

"Kouji!" She cried. He looked at her but didn't answer; instead, he got his D-Tector out and pressed the side button.

"Execute! Spirit Evolution!" The blinding light appeared again, along with the Digital Codes that surrounded Kouji and then showed a tall and strong Lobomon.

Lobomon landed right between Sakura and Woodmon. Wasting no time, he got out his Lobo Kendo and used it as a sword, charging Woodmon with all his strength and hitting him in one of his branches; the attack only caused a small whole, but Woodmon was still injured.

"Lobomon hit him between his eyes!" Sakura yelled, remembering the impact her Silver Rain had caused. "I've all ready damaged him there!"

"Right," Lobomon nodded and faced Woodmon again.

"Was was that strike? A joke?" Woodmon laughed, but he shut up and his eyes widened when he saw what Lobomon was doing.

"Howling Laser!" And with one clean shot between the eyes, Lobomon had defeated Woodmon. At first nothing happened, but in no time the whole Argentmon and Lobomon had created broke Woodmon's face in little pieces.

"Obviously you've been taken by evil!" Lobomon said as Woodmon let out a frustration yell. "Be purified by the light! Farewell Woodmon, for good!" Lobomon said as he waved his D-Tector. "Just so you learn not to mess up with her," he whispered in a very low voice. "Fractal Code, digitize!" And with that, Woodmon had become the Mushroomon trio again, only that they looked different; they looked cute and innocent.

"What happened to us?" One asked.

"Were we in a bad dream?" The kept on wandering. Sakura smiled relieved as she figured that the Mushroomon were good again. A beeping interrupted them.

It was Kouji's D-Tector. Slowly, Kouji pressed a button and all the Fractal Code of Breezy Village started to turn the arid soil into a meadow with flowers and trees. Everything blossomed, including the life in the village. They started talking about new recipes for their food and tourists. Sakura founded herself lying under a patch of flowers, listening to the nice conversation accompanied by the gentle breeze.

"You shouldn't drop this, you know," Kouji said as he picked up Sakura's Star.

"I'm…" she took a deep breath. "…so glad you decided to come."

"No big deal. You're my Little Nuisance, aren't you?" He teased. "I can't let you become someone else's problem."

"Don't worry, you won't get rid of me so easily," she threatened, but blushed at the same time. Kouji also looked away.

"Hum, let me help you put this on before you lose it," he said and he gently put Sakura's necklace on.

"Hey Kouji!" Zoe's voice came from behind. She stood in front of Kouji and Sakura with that big smile on her face. "They're all pretty happy thanks to you!" She said as she offered her hand, but Kouji didn't take it; instead he grabbed Sakura's hand and started walking. "You know, you could try being friendly!" She stared annoyed at them. Sakura turned around and smiled.

"He's friendly; you just need to get to know him." She smiled. "By the way, you're really good! Keep on practicing those moves!" She waved at her and kept on walking, holding hands with Kouji. She then stopped, making Kouji stop as well. "You know, every time we fight something hideous happens."

"Let's make a deal then, to stop these things from happening." He suggested with a grin on her face. Sakura stared at him, waiting. "Let's promise not to fight again."

"All right, I promise!" Sakura giggled.

"Promise." He replied smiling.

Many things bloomed in that evening, not only the land, and some things didn't even seem possible! The bad part was that the promise they made was going to be harder to keep than they thought…


End file.
